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Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination to
challenge Democratic President Joe Biden next year, traveled to
Edinburg, Texas, with Abbott to visit Texas National Guard
soldiers, Texas Department of Public Safety troopers and other
service members stationed there.
Abbott said Biden's border policies pose a danger to communities
across the United States. He credited Trump with cutting border
crossings to the lowest point in decades during his presidency.
"I'm here to tell you that there is no way, no way that America
can continue under the leadership of Joe Biden as our president.
We need a president who's going to secure the border," Abbott
said.
Trump said he was honored by Abbott's endorsement.
"This meant a lot to me," Trump said. "You're not going to have
to worry about the border anymore, governor ... you're not going
to have to worry about the border in Texas or Arizona or
anywhere else."
Since Biden took office in 2021, U.S. border agents have made
more than 5 million arrests of migrants making irregular
crossings - not through a controlled border station - over the
U.S.-Mexico border. Migrants have arrived from around the world;
large numbers have fled economic and political turmoil in Cuba,
Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
Trump has pledged to crack down on illegal immigration and
restrict legal immigration if elected next year. His plan
includes a promise to restore his 2019 "remain in Mexico"
program, which forced non-Mexican asylum-seekers hoping to enter
the United States at the Mexican border to wait in Mexico for
the resolution of their cases.
The program was terminated by Biden, who defeated Trump in 2020,
pledging more humane and orderly immigration policies. But he
has struggled with record levels of migrants caught crossing the
U.S.-Mexico border illegally.
Abbott has emerged as a leading Republican figure on border
issues by mounting his own Operation Lone Star border security
initiative, a controversial plan to stop migration that has put
his state at odds with the Biden administration.
(Reporting by David Morgan and Jasper Ward in Washington;
Editing by Scott Malone, Bill Berkrot and Chris Reese)
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