AUSTIN – Illegal immigration through the Texas-Mexico border is down 87 percent.
That number, coming this afternoon from Mike Banks, Governor Greg Abbott’s “Special Advisor on Border Matters.”
Banks says the slowdown has caused the federal government to temporarily move agents out of Texas to other ports of entry in Arizona, California, and New Mexico.
The San Diego and Tuscon Ports of Entry have seen a 60-percent increase in traffic, while Texas’ ports of entry have each seen substantially less traffic compared to last year.
“We’re here to say, ‘don’t try it in Texas,’” “We’re not going to accept illegal entries into the state of Texas. You’re going to come legally, or you’re not going to come.”
Although Banks says migration tends to slow down through the rest of the year, the state is ramping up its operations ahead of what he believes will be a pre-presidential election surge.