Today is the day Governor Abbott goes to the Rio Grande Valley to see the progress being made on the Texas border wall. The Biden administration continues to ignore the requests coming from Texas for help in handling the humanitarian and public health crisis on the Texas-Mexico border. What’s a governor to do? Governor Abbott is taking up where construction of the border wall ended under Biden.

Immigration is a federal issue yet Joe Biden decided before he even took office to disregard successful policies used by the previous administration. Because of petty partisan politics, and a desire for open borders, Biden has turned a blind eye to what is happening at the southern border. He did weigh in when thousands of Haitian migrants crossed into Del Rio, Texas, but that was only to criticize Border Patrol’s horse patrol agents for crowd control. The Rio Grande Sector set a new record of migrant apprehensions in Fiscal Year 2021.

Last month Governor Abbott began Operation Steel Curtain to protect the border. Shipping containers are being used to create a steel wall next to the international bridge at Eagle Pass. The steady stream of migrants shifted from Del Rio to Eagle Pass in November. Operation Steel Curtain is a part of Operation Lone Star, a massive operation that Abbott began in March to provide supplemental border security and thwart human traffickers and drug cartels. Abbott deployed 10,000 State Troopers and National Guard troops as part of Operation Steel Curtain. With no cooperation coming from the federal government, Abbott is continuing on with this pledge to begin the construction of a border taking up where it left off. Before Thursday, only six miles of wire border fencing were put up as barriers along the Rio Grande River.

The first wall panels were erected Thursday in Starr County. The wall is being constructed with state money on state land. The contractor is the same one who built Trump’s border wall in Texas. One interesting point in this story is that Biden is refusing to sell the steel left behind when he stopped the wall construction to Texas. The material is just sitting there, unused. Why so wasteful, Joe? Is it just spite? Governor Abbott will be at the construction site to observe and update on the project.

NEW: Texas has officially started building its own border wall. The first wall panels have gone up in Starr County in the RGV. State land, state money. This particular contractor was building Trump’s wall until Biden cancelled them. Now they build for @GregAbbott_TX. @FoxNews pic.twitter.com/8wgZIXeFz4

— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) December 17, 2021

These are the first panels in what will be a 1.7 mile stretch designed to help fill gaps where there is no federal wall. More projects planned.
Governor Abbott will be at the construction site tomorrow to hold 12pm ET announcement/details. @FoxNews will air it live. pic.twitter.com/gG5yggbDcp

— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) December 17, 2021

The federal government will not sell Texas the steel that was already bought and paid for for President Trump’s wall. The metal continues to sit around, going to waste. TX is sourcing its own steel for its border wall. @FoxNews https://t.co/LSF7s709iO

— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) December 17, 2021

As usual, the rest of the national media can’t be bothered to report on the Biden border crisis, but Fox News is doing daily reporting from the border.

When Biden abruptly put a halt to border wall construction, he left large gaps in the fence already being built. The first panels going up now are to fill in those gaps. It is a program approved by the Texas Legislature. Abbott reasons that the historically high levels of migrants flooding the state’s border is a security threat to both Texas and the United States. Abbott intends for the wall built by Texas to span hundreds of miles. During the Trump administration, 458 miles of a barrier system were added – 85 miles in new locations and 373 miles of updated fencing.

On Thursday, Lt. Col. Dan Garrison of the Texas Military Department, who is an engineer in charge of the fence-building that is part of Operation Lone Star, updated with news that private landholders have committed to allowing fencing to be built on a total of 62.75 miles in five border counties. Those counties are Val Verde, Maverick, Starr, Zapata, and Webb. Garrison said, “There’s a big safety aspect in building this barrier. The intent is to stop that crossing in places where people could potentially get hurt.” Over the course of the last two weeks, two miles of temporary fencing has been put up in rural Starr County east of Rio Grande City.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott plans to visit the site in Rio Grande City on Saturday morning along with Texas General Land Office Commissioner George P. Bush; DPS Director Steve McCraw; Texas Military Department Adjutant Gen. Tracy Norris; and a few state lawmakers, the governor’s office announced Thursday.

The Texas General Land Office gave the Department of Public Safety access to 3,100 acres of farmland to put up temporary border fencing.

But Garrison told Border Report that the wire fencing placed in Starr County is concertina wire, and the coils stand no taller than 4-feet off the ground. It is a temporary barricade that can be moved easily “in case of a caravan.”

He said the razor wire deters and entangles and stops migrants from crossing the Rio Grande and into the United States.

“If there is a need to stop movement quickly, we can surge to any area and literally place (down) miles within hours,” he said.

The newly constructed steel wall project will cost less than the cost of Trump’s wall, according to the governor. Abbott told Fox Business Channel’s Stuart Varney on Friday that using state-owned land reduces the cost. Fed-up property owners are allowing the state to put up the wall on their property, too.

Three billion dollars of Texas taxpayer money has been devoted to this cause of Texas securing the border, and so we have a lot of money available to us to continue to build the wall. And Stuart, I’ll add this, for Texas [this] is going to cost less than it did for the Trump administration for one reason. And that’s because in Texas, unlike the Trump administration, we’re not having to devote money to acquire the land …The state of Texas owns [land] on the border itself.

Secondly, there are property owners of massive acreage on the border who are fed up with Biden’s open border policies, and they are donating their land to Texas for us to be able to use that land for free to build a wall on their property.

Abbott is running for re-election and the Biden border crisis is a big issue to Texas voters. Even bat crap crazy progressive Beto says that border control isn’t enough of a priority with Biden’s administration. Abbott also appeared on Tucker’s show last night to talk about the project.

Six months ago, I directed the Texas Facilities Commission to begin building our own border wall.

Tomorrow, I will be in Rio Grande City to debut its construction.

Texas continues to take unprecedented actions to secure the border. pic.twitter.com/p6jEKTG7ZH

— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) December 18, 2021