HOUSTON TEXAS – The governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, appointed former Border Patrol agent Mike Banks this Monday in the city of San Benito as head of the new office that “will coordinate the fight against illegal immigration and arms trafficking and drugs” on the border with Mexico.
“Fighting irregular immigration in Texas is a full-time job that requires a leader whose sole objective is to reject President (Joe) Biden’s open border policies,” Abbott said at a press conference in an area where they are held construction work on a section of the border wall.
Banks, a 10-year public sector retiree, worked as a border agent in the Rio Grande Valley area of Texas, as well as in Border Patrol administrative offices in Arizona, California, and at Border Patrol headquarters in Washington. , DC
“I have dedicated the last 23 years of my life to protecting this nation’s borders and I will continue to do so because I am passionate about it,” Banks said during the conference.
According to Abbott, Banks will oversee state efforts to stop not only drug trafficking and irregular immigration, but also human trafficking, in collaboration with local law enforcement, the US Army, the National Guard and the Department of Public security.
The Republican governor added that the newly appointed “border czar” knows first-hand “the risks faced” by hacienda owners and communities in the region in light of the impact of the presence of Mexican drug cartels in the country.
Texas joined the list of 20 states that filed a legal complaint against the Biden Administration after the announcement about the expansion of the program that currently grants humanitarian permits to Venezuelans who cross the border irregularly and to accept more than 30,000 migrants per month from Venezuela. , Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua.
Abbott stressed that since the start of the so-called Operation Lone Star, launched in March 2021 to stop the flow of undocumented immigrants entering the United States, Texas National Guard troops have “returned” a total of 32,000 migrants and arrested to 24,000 criminals. Likewise, he indicated, more than 15,000 foreigners have been sent on chartered buses to different states with Democratic governments.
“In addition, we have seized enough fentanyl to kill every man, woman and child in the entire United States of America,” Abbott said of the border raids, without naming a specific number.