Governor Greg Abbott of Texas has announced his state has begun construction of its own border wall. This is an unprecedented move for a state because national and border security are the domain of the federal government. But when our national government fails to enforce its own security laws, states must take up that responsibility. That is now happening for the first time in the Lone Star State.

Gov. Abbott told Fox News, “As you can see, Texas is building the border wall as we speak right now. This is unprecedented for a state to have to secure the sovereignty of the United States of America.” When asked why his state is employing its precious tax-dollars, materials, and physical labor to do the job of the federal government, Abbott was adamant, “Because of the tragedy that has occurred when [the federal government] is not enforcing the immigration laws.” He adds, “We have drug cartels. We have human trafficking. We have fentanyl brought across the border.” Of course, this is putting American families of all races at serious risk.

Abbott told the tragic story of a local family. “A woman, not too far from where we are right now, she and her daughter lost their life because a smuggler ran through a stop sign then t-boned and killed them.” He continued, “There is devastation every single day because the [federal government] is not doing its job to secure its borders. So Texas is stepping up and doing [their] job.”

Abbott notes, “It’s never been this bad, because the borders have never been this open.”

Smugglers have gotten much more brazen in their crime as they learn our nation’s immigration laws are not being federally enforced. Abbott explained, “the cartels know they have free reign because the [current administration] has an open border policy. It’s disgusting.”  

It is simple logic that unsafe borders turn into unsafe neighborhoods and these result in unsafe families. Texas and other border states are starting to step up where our national government is faltering to protect families.

Every American family should watch Gov. Abbott’s interview as well as the interviews below with border patrol professionals and citizens who daily risk their lives to maintain our chaotically porous borders.

A nation without secure borders cannot remain a nation. It is simple logic. And families, even new immigrant families who entered our nation properly and legally in order to gain a better life for themselves and their children, are as concerned about this problem as anyone. They know that they cannot fully realize the American dream for their children if their newly adopted nation fails to protect its own borders. And this is precisely what is taking place in Florida, Texas, Arizona, and California.

Our borders are at an unprecedented crisis point and Focus on the Family applauds the extraordinary efforts of state governments to step in and protect families where the federal government is presently failing.  

Photo from The Texas Tribune.