Texas will be building a Forward Operating Base in Eagle Pass to support its border protection efforts. National Guardsmen and other state officials are currently being housed in hotels and private residences, making commutes long and cutting down on effective operational time.
The base will begin by housing 300 personnel, but should accommodate up to 1,800 soon after. The base is critical to sustain border operations on a quasi-war footing. The Washington Post reports:
Flanked by armed National Guard members, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) announced on Friday plans to build a base housing up to 1,800 troops in Eagle Pass, close to the riverfront area where state leaders have been at loggerheads with the Biden administration over immigration enforcement.
The base, planned to house an initial 300 troops by April, is the latest effort by Abbott to curb border crossings into Texas under a mission dubbed Operation Lone Star that he began less than two months after President Biden was inaugurated. Plans for the base come as the country gears up for a presidential election and reckons with the hundreds of thousands of migrants who have illegally crossed the southern border in recent months.
The crisis at Eagle Pass escalated when Governor Abbott ordered the deployment of barbed wire to prevent more illegal immigrants from crossing into Texas. Biden attempted to force the Border open by threatening Texas, but eventually backed down. The Hill reports:
Abbott’s announcement also comes after the failure of a bipartisan border deal in Congress a week ago, which former President Trump, whom the governor endorsed for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination in November, strongly opposed.
“Only a fool, or a Radical Left Democrat, would vote for this horrendous Border Bill, which only gives Shutdown Authority after 5000 Encounters a day, when we already have the right to CLOSE THE BORDER NOW, which must be done,” Trump wrote on Truth Social quickly after the bill’s release.
The border is shaping to be one of the biggest issues of 2024, with numbers of illegals skyrocketing. While many migrants still come from Central America, and to some extent Mexico, a growing number come from other parts of the world intent on violating immigration laws to cut in line.
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