On Monday, as part of broader efforts by the state of Texas to secure the southern border in ways that the federal government refuses to, the Texas National Guard began placing layers of razor wire along the border.
Fox News reports that Governor Greg Abbott (R-Texas) tweeted the pictures of the progress, declaring that the new barriers would be installed “in high-traffic areas for illegal crossings at the Texas-Mexico border,” and that the National Guard is “working around the clock to secure the border in the federal government’s absence.”
The move is part of the broader plan launched by Abbott in March of 2021, “Operation Lone Star,” which has seen the government of Texas take additional measures to secure the border in response to the Biden Administration’s deliberate efforts to open the border and allow in as many illegal aliens as possible.
Abbott says that the state’s efforts through Operation Lone Star have led to over 336,000 illegal alien apprehensions and over 23,000 criminal arrests, of which 20,000 were for felony charges. The operation has also led to the seizure of over 354 million doses of fentanyl, one of the most frequently-trafficked drugs across the southern border.
“Operation Lone Star continues to fill the dangerous gaps left by the Biden Administration’s refusal to secure the border,” said Abbott in a press release. “Every individual who is apprehended or arrested and every ounce of drugs seized would have otherwise made their way into communities across Texas and the nation due to President Biden’s open border policies.”
In late 2022, the newly-reelected Governor Abbott declared a state of emergency over the influx of illegals across the border into Texas, which enabled him to use additional emergency powers to stop the threat. The state has also begun placing metal shipping containers along the border in areas where the official border wall commissioned by President Donald Trump was not completed, providing a sturdy makeshift barrier in a manner similar to the state of Arizona.