Governor orders guard troops

to border to assist feds

AUSTIN—On June 21, the day before President Trump called off a national sweep to find and detain undocumented non-citizens, Gov. Greg Abbott announced the deployment of 1,000 Texas National Guard troops to the Rio Grande. Accompanied by Lt.Gov. Dan Patrick, House Speaker Dennis Bonnen, and Adj. Gen. Tracy Norris in a state Capitol news conference, Abbott said the deployment would assist the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and Customs and Border Patrol with the “escalating humanitarian crisis” at the Texas-Mexico border.

“In the past three weeks alone,” Abbott said, “more than 45,000 individuals from 52 different countries have been apprehended illegally crossing the border into Texas. The crisis at our southern border is unlike anything we’ve witnessed before and has put an enormous strain on the existing resources we have in place.”

The federal government will pay for 100 percent of the costs associated with the short-term mission, according to a news release from the governor’s office. In the coming weeks, plans call for holding facilities to be established in the Rio Grande Valley and El Paso for single adults entering the country illegally. Texas National Guard troops will provide supplemental staffing support at the temporary holding facilities and supplemental enforcement support at ports of entry, Abbott said.

“Texas communities along the border and throughout the state are struggling to deal with this huge increase. Our healthcare system and schools are stretched to the breaking point, and cost increases on everything from temporary shelter and policing to street cleaning have been astronomical. Gov. Abbott, Speaker Bonnen, and I are agreed that we must work with our federal partners and act now,” Patrick said.

“As a longtime advocate for border security, I support today’s announcement as yet another example of Texas stepping up and filling in the gaps where the federal government has fallen short,” Bonnen said.

Texas prepares for hemp

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller on June 11 commented after Gov. Abbott signed House Bill 1325, legislation opening Texas to the commercial growing of hemp. Miller said the Texas Department of Agriculture would be working on the rules and guidelines for hemp production toward development of a plan to submit to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Under the 2018 U.S. Farm Bill, Miller said, the production of hemp was decriminalized and the federal government is working on regulations that all states must follow for hemp production. Texas, like many other states, had to first take steps to make it legal to grow, and now that has been done, he added.