PHARR – Former President Donald Trump returned to Texas wednesday for the first time since he left in January to take a look at an unfinished segment of the border wall near the Rio Grande and took the opportunity to turn to his successor and congressional Democrats.
“Now we have an open and more damaging border,” Trump told a crowd that included a long list of republicans elected from Texas and elsewhere. “More damaging than ever before in the history of our country.
“I mean, the real question is whether they need to open the borders or are they incompetent. They’re only two. “
The former president invited through Gov. Greg Abbott to pay attention first to the considerations of Texas law enforcement officials, and then to talk to the rusty border fence in the form of a marker and the huge U. S. and Texas flags flying around him.
In impromptu statements, Trump touched on several issues, adding several long-discredited, which turned out to be among the touchstones of his only tenure in the White House. He reiterated his claim that the Russia investigation was triggered by deception and that there were reasons. doubting the legitimacy of last year’s presidential election won through Democrat Joe Biden.
“Biden is destroying our country, and all with a fake election,” Trump said.
Abbott, a Republican who will run for a third term next year, pledged to use state resources to continue with the paintings and wall that stopped through Biden. border policy. And on occasion in South Texas, the governor continued to tout this issue by praising the former president.
“You see an unfinished border,” Abbott said, pointing to him on the wall. “It’s Biden’s fault because President Biden isn’t following what President Trump started.
“Arrests have increased, which has led to an increase in the number of criminals entering the country,” he added. “It’s time to seal this border and close it. “
RIGHT NOW: Trump arrives at the border wall in Pharr, Texas #borderwall pic. twitter. com/vCLRkXhTKw
PHOTOS: A look at the border before donald trump’s visit, Gov. Greg Abbott
Texas Democrats in both Congress and the Legislature denounced the border in damning terms and accused Trump and the governor of doing politics with the challenge, while several more pressing challenges go unnoticed.
“The state of Texas went through a lot of things last year,” said Democratic Congressman Filemon Vela of Brownsville. “The pandemic, the great cuts in force that have so many lives to lose, and now an unemployment rate that is double what we saw before. the virus.
“Instead of putting Texians first and making sure our economy grows and other people get back to work, Governor Abbott is creating a media circus that distracts a failed former president. “
As Trump headed toward the Pharr border wall, an organization of Texas Democrats gathered outdoors at the Capitol in Austin to criticize Abbott and other heads of state for what they described as an exposure stunt that diverts attention from the genuine issues lawmakers address.
“It’s a responsibility of Congress, not a responsibility of the state,” said Celia, Representative of the State of Israel D-Austin. “Congress has been absent for a generation or more, since I was a little woman in El Paso, Texas: genuine answers and a genuine trail to the citizenry.
Illegal border crossings have calmed the COVID-19 pandemic that has dragged on for as long as 2020, but the federal immigration government has detained up to 100,000 migrants at the southern border each month since February, according to reports.
Trump returned to South Texas for the first time in a short time before leaving the workplace in January on a cloudy day with heavy rain. The vacation with Abbott generated a lot of media interest, not only in Texas but also internationally.
Trump said the Biden administration’s border policies, crime and smuggling had increased.
“We’re not just talking about other people, millions of other people are coming in,” Trump said. “But we’re talking about drugs, we’re talking about human trafficking. “
Law enforcement officials who joined the former president agreed.
“Mexico’s drug cartels will have to be the number one enemy of law enforcement,” Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourne said, adding that illegal opioid fentanyl crosses the border in unprecedented numbers and travels to communities across the country.
More: Why South Texas might be ripe for Donald Trump and Greg Abbott’s border wall message
Abbott’s said more than 140 news search engines, adding cable news networks, several Spanish-speaking media outlets and one from as far away as France, were accredited for planned occasions at the border. from the regional headquarters of Public Safety in Weslaco to see the site of the wall stop on the border with the city of Pharr.
More: Gov. Abbott and legislative leaders reallocate $250 million in public budget to border wall
“Go home, Governor,” said state Rep. John Bucy, an Austin Democrat. “Let’s have a special consultation and communicate about gun safety. Let’s communicate about health care, communicate about network repair and call execution. And then, if we’re going to waste taxpayers’ money to be here, we can do anything for the other people of Texas. “
American-Statesman editor-in-chief Madlin Mekelburg contributed to this report.