El Paso (USA), May 8 (EFE).- The governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, announced on Monday the deployment of a new National Guard unit that will operate with helicopters to prevent the entry of migrants from Mexico and announced that it is preparing laws to make illegal entry a “serious crime” and allow the expulsion of migrants.
In a press appearance from Austin, the Republican governor assured that the new unit is called the Tactical Border Force and specified that it will use Black Hawk and C 130 helicopters.
“They will be deployed to hot spots along the border to intercept, repel, and return migrants attempting to enter Texas illegally,” he said.
Title 42 expires next Thursday, a controversial immigration measure that allows, for health reasons related to the covid 19 pandemic, the hot expulsion of people who cross the border.
Abbott assured that he maintains 10,000 members of the National Guard deployed along the approximately 2,000 kilometers of the border, in addition to other security forces, and again accused President Joe Biden of the situation on the border.
“We are dealing with a never-before-seen number of people who have crossed the border and this year we will set a new all-time record,” he said.
Thus, by the end of the month he wants to approve a new state law to declare the entry of immigrants a serious crime. A norm, he pointed out, that grants the authorities the power to “detain these people in jail for a serious crime or, as an alternative, return them to Mexico.”
He also declared that he will also consider penalizing with a minimum of ten years in prison those people who help undocumented migrants “hide”.
