An Update From
The Southern Border
When I first entered the Texas House, Texas was spending about $500 million each biennium on border security. In fact, Governor Abbott was the first governor in Texas history to have dollars allocated for this purpose.
Over the past two sessions now, I have voted to appropriate billions of dollars for border security due to President Biden’s absolute failure. In 2023 alone, the Texas Legislature appropriated $5 billion for border security measures and Operation Lone Star.
Those dollars fund our Guardsmen and DPS Troopers, Texas military equipment, border wall construction and other defense options.
Texas National Guard soldiers and DPS troopers have apprehended more than 386,000 illegal immigrants, made over 29,000 criminal arrests, seized over 419 MILLION deadly fentanyl doses, and bussed over 22,600 migrants to self-declared sanctuary cities.
Texas has bused more than 10,000 migrants to our nation’s capital since April 2022, over 8,200 migrants to New York City since August 2022, more than 2,600 migrants to Chicago since August 2022, more than 1,600 migrants to Philadelphia since November 2022, over 210 migrants to Denver since May 2023, and over 40 migrants to Los Angeles since June 14.
Texas soldiers and troopers patrol the border around-the-clock to detect and stop more illegal crossings. While Biden ignores the border crisis, Texas is stepping up to fill the gaps he created!
Texas is on pace to construct more border wall on state and donated lands than President Trump built here when he was in office. But we’re not just building the wall…
We’re also installing razor wire and other defense mechanisms, like the buoys pictured below. These buoys started being installed as a marine barrier on the Rio Grande this past week.
It’s not lost on me that the top issues facing Texans are crippling property taxes and an open, dangerous southern border. While I’m back and forth to Austin, hammering out the largest state tax cut in United States history (which will be done soon), the dollars I voted to fund Operation Lone Star are paying dividends stopping dangerous cartels and human traffickers.
Still, we’ll keep pushing until the job gets done.
Video Interview:
Rep. Patterson
Last week, I sat down with The Texan News to discuss The READER Act, Property Tax Relief and other issues – including, my philosophy on governing and advancing the conservative agenda. Check it out here!
