Texas Installing Razor Wire Along New Mexico Border

Facts

• Texas Gov. Greg Abbott recently announced on X, formerly known as Twitter, that a razor wire barrier is being built on the New Mexico border — the latest step in his Operation Lone Star — claiming that migrants have illegally crossed from Mexico into New Mexico before heading to Texas to circumvent barriers around El Paso.¹
• The two-mile-long barrier, which has been deployed in recent weeks by the Texas National Guard, consists of two rows of concertina wire strung between metal poles running through an urban area west of Interstate 10 near Mount Cristo Rey.²
• This comes as Abbott told a conservative audience last month that border barriers would have to be built between Texas and New Mexico, in addition to those erected between Texas' southern border, to successfully stop all unlawful entries into the state.³
• Since Operation Lone Star was launched in 2021, the state has allocated about $10B for the border security initiative. Abbott has recently urged lawmakers to approve additional measures to crack down on human smuggling and to increase penalties for illegally entering Texas from Mexico.⁴
• The Republican governor has been at odds with Pres. Joe Biden's administration regarding immigration and border security, with an ongoing federal lawsuit against Abbott for the 1K-foot floating barrier installed along the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass still pending.⁵
• Meanwhile, the Daily Caller on Thursday reported, citing internal US Border Patrol data, that illegal immigration at the southern border hit a new September record this year, with 218,777 encounters. Apprehensions during the FY 2023, which ended in September, surpassed 2M.⁶

Sources: ¹The Hill, ²The Texas Tribune, ³ABC News, ⁴Caller, ⁵Dallas News and ⁶Daily Caller.

Narratives

• Republican narrative, as provided by The Western Journal. A wide gap in the steel barrier along the US-Mexico border has allowed illegal immigrants to easily cross into Sunland Park, N.M., and later walk over to El Paso, Texas. As the Biden administration fails to secure America's southern border and halt illegal immigration, Texas has been left with no other choice but to take this matter into its own hands once again.
• Democratic narrative, as provided by Newsweek. This latest political stunt to deprecate immigrants is outrageously unconstitutional, as this concertina wire barrier limits free movement between US states, violating the rights of Americans. Once again, Abbott has come up with an idea that provides no real long-term solution to the current southern border crisis.

Predictions