Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott, by appointing a full-time border czar whose focus is to respond to President Joe Biden's open border policy, continues to do an "incredible job," of working with his state to secure the border, but Texas is "still hamstrung" because immigration enforcement and border security are ultimately the jobs of the federal government, former acting Customs and Border Patrol Commissioner Mark Morgan said on Newsmax Tuesday.
"Gov. Abbott is on the front line of trying to do what this administration refuses to do, and that's secure our border to protect the American people look through operation Lone Star and through building Texas's own wall," Morgan, a visiting fellow for the Heritage Foundation, told Newsmax's "Wake Up America."
But, "states can only do so much," said Morgan. Even though the duty falls on the federal government to handle immigration, that isn't happening.
Abbott announced the hiring of Mike Banks, a former Border Patrol agent, as the czar Monday during a press conference at a Texas border wall construction site in San Benito. Banks' official title is special advisor on border matters to the governor, reports KIAH in Houston.
Banks will report directly to Abbott and collaborate daily with state agencies, local officials, and Texas landowners at the border.
Morgan said more states should follow Abbott's lead not only at the nation's southern border but at the U.S.-Canada border, which is a growing problem as well.
"We're having our coastal borders, as well as our northern border, represent serious threats," said Morgan, noting in the sector covering New York, New Hampshire, and Vermont, there has been a 700% increase this time last year of people being apprehended while entering the United States illegally.
"There's a multitude of serious threats on our northern border as well," said Morgan, noting Canadian violent homegrown extremists, and an "expansive maritime environment that smugglers and cartels are taking advantage of to not just smuggle people from also drugs from Canada into the United States."
However, the northern border has even fewer resources, technology, and personnel than the southern border, and people and resources are being pulled from the north to the south to help, making matters even more vulnerable, said Morgan.
The immigrants crossing the Canadian border aren't Canadians, said Morgan, but from around 19 or 20 different countries.
"Canadian immigration laws are, by far, more lax than ours," he said. "They're just flying into Canada and then they're making their trek across the wide open border."
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