Texas Gov. Greg Abbott decries immigration under President Biden during Dallas visit

Gov. Greg Abbott continued his criticism of President Joe Biden’s immigration policies Wednesday in Dallas as a downtown convention center prepares to house up to 3,000 migrant teenagers.

The federal government will use the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas to house the minors at what’s being described as a “decompression center,” according to the Associated Press. Abbott was at a nearby hotel, where he was joined by Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw and Andrea Spark, the child sex trafficking team director in the governor’s office.

Abbott posed questions for the administration: “How long will these children be here? What countries have they come from? And what COVID variants have they been exposed to?”

He also accused Biden of “enticing unaccompanied minors into inhumane conditions … that expose these children to traffickers, to abuse and to terror.”

“I urge President Biden: Do not traumatize these children by enticing them to make this trek,” Abbott said.

Biden recently told migrants not to come to the U.S. in an interview with ABC News.

“I can say quite clearly, don’t come over,” Biden said, noting that the administration is setting up a process for applying for asylum in place. “So don’t leave your town, or city or community.”

When it comes to children crossing he border, Biden said most are 16 and 17. He advocated for trying to connect the minors with an adult contact in the U.S.

“In the past what you do is, HHS will take them to licensed providers, so there’s bed, security, where there’s health care … while they determine whether or not there’s someone in the United States they’re entitled to go to,” Biden said. “That’s what we’re in the process of doing now.”

Nearly 100,000 migrants were apprehended in February at the Texas-Mexico border, marking the 10th consecutive month of increases, according to the Pew research center. Abbott said more than 11,000 minors have been apprehended crossing the border into Texas this year.

Abbott said Texas Department of Public Safety troopers and Texas Rangers will conduct interviews with unaccompanied minors crossing the border to identify victims of human trafficking and aid in the arrest of traffickers. He also asked that DPS be allowed into the convention center and other federally run facilities to conduct interviews with unaccompanied minors.

Abbott’ has criticized Biden’s immigration policy in recent days, including claims that his administration is allowing migrants with COVID-19 to enter the state illegally. Marcella Nunez-Smith, the White House’s COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force chair, said in an interview Sunday with “Face the Nation” that she had not seen evidence of undocumented migrants spreading the virus in Texas. Abbott disputed the assertion on Twitter.

The Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, which is available for 90 days, will house boys 15 to 17 to open space in U.S. Border Patrol detention cells, according to the Washington Post.

“The way that we see the number of unaccompanied minors crossing the border, there’s every reason for Americans to expect the number and size of those sites to continue to increase in the coming days,” Abbott said.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said she needed to look into the specifics of the Dallas site when asked Monday about steps were taken to ensure the teens are cared for.

“I would say that we have been looking at additional facilities to open to move children, unaccompanied children, into facilities where they can receive access to healthcare, educational resources, mental health resources, legal resources,” she told reporters. “And certainly, we would ensure that we are meeting the standard that we have set out.”

A White House spokesperson deferred a request for comment on Abbott’s remarks to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Spokespersons for the department did not immediately return requests for comment.

State Rep. Rafael Anchía, a Dallas Democrat who chairs the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, wrote on Twitter that Abbott’s remarks are a distraction from COVID-19 and February’s winter storm and power grid failure.

“In the midst of nationwide attacks against Asian Americans, he manufactures fear of mainly Latino kids,” Anchía said. “He knows the danger of this irresponsible language because we lived it first-hand when El Paso families were gunned down because they were Hispanic. His pandering press shows should not distract from the fact that Greg Abbott has failed Texans when we desperately needed his leadership.”

Former HUD Secretary and Democratic presidential candidate Julián Castro accused Abbott of using “children desperately seeking a better life in America as political props.”

“Where was he when Donald Trump was treating children with cruelty and creating a backlog of asylum claims?” Castro wrote on Twitter.

Texas Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, both Republicans, are expected to host a Senate delegation visit to the U.S.-Mexico border later this month.

“It is reckless. It is dangerous and it is driven by a partisan ideology rather than a willingness to enforce the law and keep Americans safe,” Cruz said, according to McClatchy D.C.