On Thursday's Glenn Beck Program, Texas Attorney General and Republican gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott joined guest host Dana Loesch to discuss the steps the state of Texas is taking to secure the border with or without the help of the federal government.
While the media has largely focused on the humanitarian crisis that will result in some 60,000 unaccompanied illegal immigrant children crossing the border this year alone, the last several months have also seen an increase in drug cartels and dangerous gang members crossing the border.
"You need to understand that [the] pictures that are captured by the media [are the pictures] they want you to see. There are other pictures of other people coming across the border, such as members of MS-13," Abbott said. "This is very dangerous in the long-term, which is why Texas has stopped waiting for Washington to step up and do its job, and why Texas has begun the process of securing our border."
Last week, Texas announced the implementation of a "surge" to help combat the illegal crossings. The state Department of Public Safety has been authorized to fund operations at about $1.3 million a week.
"Texas has sent down the Texas Department of Public Safety to engage in what’s called a surge operation that will last the remainder of this year," Abbott explained. "This is nothing new for the Department of Public Safety — I was involved with them when they did their last surge last fall. When they put boots on the ground, they put airplanes and helicopters in the air, boats on the water, they are able to vastly improve border security and vastly decrease the amount of illegal cross-border activity.”
Abbott was quick to point, however, that Texas simply does not have the resources to handle this alone.
"The state does not have the resources to deal with this," Abbott said. "On a long-term basis, we don’t have the ability to deal with this and to pay for it, which is why already I sent a letter to [DHS] Secretary Jeh Johnson demanding that they go ahead and compensate Texas for all of our out-of-pocket costs, right now demanding only $30 million, but it’s going to be far more than that. That’s a drop in the bucket of what it’s going to cost."
Ultimately, Abbott had a simple message for the Obama Administration: "Barack Obama must secure our border."