For years, Governor Abbott stayed silent as Trump’s chaotic and incompetent leadership broke our immigration system. Now, instead of trying to work with President Biden to be a part of the solution, he put on a political stunt to try to mislead the public. Texans and Americans across the country won’t forget how Abbott ignored public health experts and Republicans oppose putting checks in pockets and shots in arms.

GOVERNOR ABBOTT’S LIE: “These sites are a direct result of President Biden’s reckless open border policies that are causing a surge in border crossings and cartel activity.”

THE TRUTH: President Biden is not responsible for a surge in migrants  and is working to repair the damage Trump caused to our immigration system.

CNN: “‘I can say quite clearly: Don’t come,’ Biden told ABC in an interview aired on Tuesday. The President continued: ‘We’re in the process of getting set up, don’t leave your town or city or community.’”

Council on Foreign Relations: “Still, the administration has inherited a migration system in crisis. The institutional capacity of immigration courts and other parts of the bureaucracy to humanely manage caseloads has eroded. It will take time and money to clear the backload of more than 1.2 million pending immigration cases and put back into place working asylum processes. The pandemic has made managing these flows and the containment of people all the harder.”

Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: “Trumpists will claim this supposed Biden permissiveness is drawing more migrants relative to last year to make the trek. But Wendy Young, the president of Kids in Need of Defense, told me it’s far more complex than this.  Migration was suppressed last year during the pandemic, and arrivals are now rising due to many factors in Central America.”

THE TRUTH: For the past year, the border has been restricted due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Washington Post: “But many of those who live along the border in Texas say that while there has been a dramatic increase in the number of migrants caught crossing illegally, the border itself has been heavily restricted for nearly a year because of the coronavirus pandemic.”

GOVERNOR ABBOTT’S LIE: “The administration has yet to provide answers that Texans deserve… Are they being tested for COVID, and if so, how is the administration handling those who test positive? Is the federal government following CDC quarantine protocols?”

THE TRUTH: The Biden administration has been requiring COVID tests and working to protect the American public, with little help from Gov. Abbott himself. 

Houston Chronicle: “A negative coronavirus test is required by the federal government before entry to the U.S. While U.S. Customs and Border Protection conducts screenings, ‘suspected COVID-19 cases are referred to local health systems for appropriate testing, diagnosis, and treatment,’ the agency said in a statement.”

CNN: “Texas Gov. Abbott Stalled Federal Offer To Test Migrants Then Blamed Them For Spreading Covid.”

Austin American-Statesman: “Gov. Greg Abbott ends statewide mask mandate, moves to ‘open Texas 100%’ — actions at odds with health experts, federal officials”

GOVERNOR ABBOTT’S LIE: “There is something different this time. Far more prolifically than in the past. Quite often in the past there has been a large number of single adults or family units coming across the border.” 

THE TRUTH: Residents and elected officials in Texas border towns refute implications by Gov. Abbott that the state is suddenly in crisis. 

Associated Press: “Nearly three-quarters of the more than 100,000 total people encountered at the southwest border in February were single adults, records show, and the vast majority were quickly sent back across the border to Mexico under the public health order.”

Washington Post: “But for border communities in Texas and beyond, this is the beginning of a third wave of increasingly routine migration upticks in recent years.”

THE TRUTH: Many of the migrant children at the border sought to enter the U.S. during the Trump administration.

Jennifer Podkul, Vice President of Kids in Need of Defense: “[T]hese aren’t brand new cases of people setting out for the U.S…. These are kids who’ve been waiting at the border, in some cases for more than a year.

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