Governor Abbott greeted Joe and Jill Biden when they landed in El Paso on Sunday. Abbott hand-delivered a letter to the president, described as a ‘scathing’ letter criticizing his border policies. Since Joe Biden won’t engage with Abbott to work on securing the southern border, Abbott rightfully presented some truth to the president in the letter. Abbott explained that Biden’s visit – his first ever to the border – was “$20 billion too little and two years too late.” He also noted that Biden’s tour of El Paso avoided where the real immigration problems occur and that he was ignoring “the thousands of angry Texas property owners whose lives have been destroyed by your border policies.”

Texas is paying the price for President Biden’s inaction, & we are taking unprecedented action to protect our state.

Time for Biden to secure the border by enforcing federal immigration laws.https://t.co/UXLdMVXaf7

— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) January 8, 2023

Texas taxpayers have paid a heavy price for Biden’s dereliction of duty along the US-Mexico border. Landowners along the border have seen their property trashed and homes robbed by illegal immigrants. Governor Abbott asked Biden to start enforcing the immigration laws already on the books. That is something that can be done immediately and to continue to ignore the obvious is proof that Joe Biden simply doesn’t care. The Biden border crisis is intentional.

Joe Biden showed he isn’t interested in really seeing for himself what is going on in Texas, thanks to his policies. Before Biden’s trip on Sunday, the City of El Paso cleaned up. The city cleared the downtown area of migrant camps. The suddenly sanitized version may as well as been Des Moines for all Biden would be able to tell, said a Border Patrol agent. Local residents are angry about what is happening to their city.

The hundreds of people camped out on individual blocks surrounding the Greyhound Bus Station and Sacred Heart Church have been moved out of eyesight by local El Paso police officers and federal Border Patrol agents, according to four law enforcement officials who spoke with the Washington Examiner on Thursday.

“The [community residents] that experienced it on a daily basis were fed up and they made it known,” a senior federal agent wrote in a text message. “Crime was getting bad and many residents were complaining. Some migrants even took over private parking lots and were charging for people to use them for parking.”

President Biden’s border visit today is to a sanitized version of El Paso.

He has no plans to enforce federal immigration laws.

Biden’s plan will only entice MORE illegal crossings.

Texas will continue our historic border mission to protect our state. pic.twitter.com/UelZRg0Zts

— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) January 8, 2023

Joe Biden lives in a bubble. His staff makes sure of that. A three-hour layover in El Paso on his way to Mexico is not the kind of trip someone takes to learn about the humanitarian crisis on the border. President Unity only brought Democrats along with him in his delegation. Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales represents El Paso. Months ago he asked Biden to come to the border but the White House was unresponsive. When he asked to be a part of the delegation on Sunday, the White House turned him down. The bi-partisan kumbiya from Biden is all a ruse. Gonzales said on CBS’s Face the Nation that he didn’t know why he wasn’t invited.

Gonzales, who said he asked Biden to visit the border seven months ago, said he didn’t know why he wasn’t invited.

The congressman’s comments came shortly before Biden was expected to touch down in El Paso for his first trip to the border since becoming president. Last week, Biden unveiled a new immigration policy aimed at curbing illegal crossings, following widespread criticism from Republicans about his administration’s handling of the southern border.

The members invited on the trip were Texas Reps. Veronica Escobar, Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez — all of them Democrats — along with local leaders, according to the White House.

I can tell him why he wasn’t invited. This trip is something a president who is running for re-election does. He’s ignored the border for as long as he can and his staff arranged a quick trip to El Paso so that Biden can go on the campaign trail, when he formally announces his candidacy, and say he went. It’s time for him to show some phony concern. He knows he has to re-implement policies the previous administration used and he did away with on his very first day in office. Biden is too stubborn to admit he’s wrong. He thinks he’s being humane. In reality, his border crisis is a humanitarian disaster.

Abbott said the federal government achieved “historically low levels of illegal immigration” under President Trump. But under the Biden administration, Abbott said, “America is suffering the worst illegal immigration in the history of our country.”

“Your open-border policies have emboldened the cartels, who grow wealthy by trafficking deadly fentanyl and even human beings,” he said. “Texans are paying an especially high price for your failure, sometimes with their very lives, as local leaders from your own party will tell you if given the chance.”

Abbott implored Biden to enforce federal immigration laws already on the books and to designate Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.

Governor Abbott later told reporters that Biden told him that he wants to work with Abbott. Abbott said that unless the laws already on the books begin to be enforced, the trip to El Paso was just a photo opportunity. Exactly.

This is a trip Biden could have taken any time. Kamala came to El Paso for a couple of hours to take photos with local officials and speak to some Border Patrol agents in June 2021. Nothing changed. The situation got worse. If Biden wanted to see the reality of what happened to El Paso recently, he would have visited last month. In January, traditionally, illegal immigrant slows. Nothing will change after Biden’s visit, either. There is no reason to think otherwise at this point.

On Tuesday, Senators Cornyn and Sinema will lead a Senate delegation to the border.

I appreciate my colleagues’ commitment to learning and understanding the many diverse challenges facing our border communities. I believe, by working together, we can bridge divides, help find lasting solutions, and finally solve this crisis.https://t.co/ycOa2pRBIY

— Kyrsten Sinema (@SenatorSinema) January 8, 2023