Texas Governor Abbott praised his state’s efforts to “secure the border.” Hours later, he blamed Biden after dozens of migrants were found dead in a semi-truck.

• At least 48 migrants were found dead Monday in the back of a truck near San Antonio, Texas.

• Texas Governor Abbott blamed Biden for the tragedy and rejected his “deadly open borders” policy.

• An hour before the discovery, Abbott praised his state’s work to secure the US-Mexico border.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott praised his state’s ability to secure “the border” between the US and Mexico on Monday, nearly an hour before dozens of suspected undocumented migrants were arrested. Found dead in a semi truck near San Antonio.

After the tragic discovery of the at least 48 dead bodies – presumably people who tried to enter the US illegal – Abbott blamed Biden for what he called “deadly open borders policies.”

“These deaths are on Biden,” Abbott tweeted late Monday night.

At 5:00 PM local time — 50 minutes before a 911 call alerted police to the abandoned truck – Abbott tweeted his praise for “Operation Lone Star,” a multi-agency effort to “secure the border, stop the smuggling of drugs, weapons, and people into Texas, and prevent, detect, and prohibit transnational criminal behavior between ports of entry.”

In his tweet, Abbott said more than 265,500 migrants have been detained, more than 16,400 people have been arrested and more than 13,800 crimes have been reported.

He also praised the fact that more than 22,000 migrants have not crossed the US-Mexico border.

“Operation Lone Star continues to fill the dangerous gaps left by the Biden administration’s refusal to secure the border,” Abbott’s office said in June. pronunciation† “Every individual apprehended or arrested and every ounce of drugs seized would otherwise have found its way into communities across Texas and the nation as a result of President Biden’s open borders policy.”

But less than an hour later, authorities were called to a rural road outside San Antonio, where the bodies were found. More than a dozen others were also hospitalized afterward Monday’s discoveryand police said three people are in custody.

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Abbott said the deaths show “the deadly consequences of… [Biden’s] refusal to enforce the law.”

Karine Jean-Pierre, White House press secretary, responded to Abbott’s claim, telling reporters on Tuesday that “the border is closed, which is partly why you see people trying to make this perilous journey using smuggling networks.” the Dallas Morning News reported†

According to the New York TimesAbbott has made managing the migration crisis a focal point of his reelection campaign.

Neither Abbott’s office nor the White House immediately responded to Insider’s requests for comment.

According to US Customs and Border Protection dataso far, there has been a higher number of encounters at the southern border for any month of 2022, compared to the same month in the previous three years.

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