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 Adjutant General 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.”
