“Combating illegal immigration in Texas is a full-time job,” Abbott said at a Monday… A National Guard soldier stands by as Texas Governor Greg Abbott tours the US-Mexico border at the Rio Grande River in Eagle Pass, Texas, on May 23, 2022. ALLISON DINNER/AFP via Getty Images
Gov. Greg Abbott announced Monday that he’s creating a new position in the state government to lead Texas’ border control efforts.
“Combating illegal immigration in Texas is a full-time job,” Abbott said at a news conference near San Benito along the Texas-Mexico border.
Abbott, a Republican elected to a new four-year term in November, said the new border czar will be Mike Banks, a former Border Patrol agent who will be based in Weslaco, near the border, and report directly to the governor. Banks retired from the Border Patrol this month and has worked for more than 20 years in border security.
“Mike has seen firsthand the struggle of ranchers and communities caused by open borders,”said Abbott, who has blamed President Joe Biden and Democrats for a historic surge of illegal border crossings that began in 2021.
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Abbott said Banks will work with the Texas National Guard, the Texas Department of Public Safety and other state agencies.
Abbott said the new border czar will also be charged with working with state officials on building the state’s border wall. He did not say how much the position will pay or how much staff Banks will have.
The hiring comes as the latest step Abbott has made in trying to slow the tide of migrants crossing the border in Texas and to call attention to the matter.
Abbott and the Legislature have already spent more than $4.4 billion to send thousands of Texas National Guard and DPS agents to the border.In recent months, Abbott also launched a busing program that sends migrants processed by Border Patrol officials to states with Democratic leaders. More than 15,000 migrants have been busedto New York City, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Chicago.
The border czar hire comes as the federal government increases Border Patrol staff on the Texas border and creates new programs to divert the flow of migrants coming specifically from Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba and Haiti.
Border Patrol officials have reported more than 400,000 encounters with migrants along the Texas border between October and December — over 100,000 more than for the same period a year ago.
jeremy.wallace@chron.com