As President Joe Biden’s open border crisis continues, former Border Patrol Agent Frank Lopez Jr. testified before the Texas Senate on border security earlier this month, requesting that Texas do more to stop the ongoing invasion.
A 30-year veteran of the U.S. Border Patrol, Lopez was raised on the Texas-Mexico border and said all Texas is accomplishing through Operation Lone Star––the state’s current border strategy––is “slapping Band-Aids on a gushing arterial wound.”
He added that no matter which “spectrum of the ideological scale people are at, this is our home. Our home is being invaded. We have intruders in our house. And we need to secure the front door. This border is the front door.”
Indeed, as the number of U.S. Customs and Border Protection encounters with illegal aliens rapidly climbs toward 2 million in this federal fiscal year, Texans are sounding the alarm regarding the devastation to property, livelihoods, and lives.
Lopez spoke of “the dangerous elements—the drugs, the human trafficking of women, children. The criminal elements, who recruit our young people from the poorest counties in the state of Texas, these border regions. … I saw it as a Border Patrol agent with great horror, to see so many young people throwing their lives away because they wanted the fast money. But fast money comes with hard times.”
And hard times are a surety on the Texas-Mexico border, with local county officials requesting additional assistance as the crisis continues.
Although Lopez acknowledges the federal government’s role in “aiding and abetting” the invasion, he also called out Texas for its role in bringing illegals further into the country:
As far as Operation Lone Star—what I have seen—it’s just like asking the fire department to show up to your burning house and just throw[ing] more gas on the fire. That’s all we’re doing; we’re throwing money at a problem.
“What I have seen with my own eyes, and what I have documented, is illegal aliens crossing over and turning themselves over to DPS or to the National Guard, only to be turned over to the Border Patrol to be taken to a processing station [and] handed over to an NGO,” said Lopez. From there, they will be released into the United States.
“We have got to get to the root cause [because] this is our home. We have a border. We must secure the border. Instead of catching and releasing, we should be preventing and repelling.”
Lopez also called out Gov. Greg Abbott for his executive order that allowed illegals to be taken to the border but not removed from Texas, and asked Texas to do more to repel the ongoing invasion.
“We all believe in immigration,” said Lopez. “We are a land of immigrants. But we have a process, and when that process is not followed, when the rules are broken, it leads to a culture of lawlessness in our society. It further enables criminal organizations to continue to exploit men and women and children, and it has got to stop. We have a moral obligation to stop the invasion.”
Notably, Lopez is running as an Independent candidate for Texas’ 23rd Congressional District, which covers the area from El Paso to San Antonio. This area is currently represented by U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzalez (R-TX), who recently voted to protect same-sex marriage.
Meanwhile, Texas counties across the state are declaring an invasion and requesting that Abbott utilize his constitutional authority to protect Texans and stop the invasion.
Concerned citizens can use the Texas Scorecard directory to contact Texas officials.
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