Greg Abbott signs new executive order restricting transportation of migrants
Texas Governor said he has a job to protect Texans, especially when it comes to Biden admin 'importing' COVID infected migrants
Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott touted his new executive order aimed at curbing both the influx of migrants at the southern border and the dynamic the governor described as the White House essentially "importing COVID into Texas and the United States" by allowing nearly unfettered illegal immigration of untested or unvaccinated foreign nationals.
Abbott signed an executive order Wednesday banning the ground transportation of migrants who are potentially infected with COVID-19 into communities within the state.
On "Hannity," Abbott said he has a duty to protect Texans, and that President Biden has been derelict in his responsibility to secure the southern border, explaining that the case of a group of COVID-symptomatic migrants found being housed in a La Joya, Texas, hotel booked by Catholic Charities served as a reminder of why the order is so important.
"What happened yesterday in La Joya, Texas -- where it was learned that migrants had been released by Border Patrol… were found in a Whataburger with extreme signs of illness. They themselves said they had COVID-19. There was a hotel full of people with COVID-19," he recounted.
"That's exactly why I issued this executive order."
He said the order empowers state law enforcement to stop and take custody of a suspect vehicle and return it to its point of origin or a port of entry.
"I have a job to protect the safety and health of the people of the state of Texas," he said. "
"That includes, especially now, preventing President Biden from importing COVID-19 into Texas as well as into the United States.
Abbott added that Biden's new CDC policy reverting to masking-up vaccinated American citizens is rank hypocrisy in the face of such lax policies at the southern border that allow COVID-19 to flourish without such onerous mandates.
"It shows that the Biden administration cares more about people who are not residents of America than it does of the residents of America," he said.
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"He has one standard, trying to mask up and vaccinate our fellow Americans while allowing free pass into the United States of people with a high probability of COVID and spreading that COVID in our communities, as has been shown in the Rio Grande Valley.
"What the Biden administration is doing is deadly and dangerous and it must be stopped. That's what my executive order today tries to achieve."
Fox News' Andrew Miller contributed to this report.
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