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President Joe Biden and Gov. Greg Abbott met in El Paso on Sunday, with the interaction marked by the latter hand-delivering a note to the former.
Biden, a Democrat, was in the West Texas city of nearly 700,000 to assess the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border, a visit that was strongly criticized by Republican leaders, per an Associated Press (AP) story that was run by Austin ABC affiliate KVUE.
It was Biden’s first time visiting the border since he was sworn into office in 2021.
A press release issued by the Office of the Texas Governor said that Abbott’s note demanded the president to secure the border and enforce federal immigration laws.
The governor, a Republican, laid out a five-point plan he believes Biden must follow to address the ongoing crisis at the border, according to his office.
"This chaos is the direct result of your failure to enforce the immigration laws that Congress enacted," Abbott said in the note. “Your open-border policies have emboldened the cartels … Texans are paying an especially high price for your failure.”
The AP reported that the president walked a muddy stretch of the border and inspected a busy checkpoint.
According to the report, Biden, who watched border patrol officers perform their duties, said he hadn’t read the letter since his arrival in El Paso.
The president said the officers need plenty of resources, per the AP.
“We’re going to get it for them,” Biden said.
Illegal immigration has been a source of anger and frustration for Abbott and his fellow Republicans toward the Biden administration in the last two years.
The White House’s purported inactive response to the crisis had prompted Abbott and Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis to take matters into their own hands and bus migrants to what they call left-leaning areas.
Abbott, who’ll be inaugurated to a third consecutive term in Texas’ highest office this month, sent a bus of migrants to Vice President Kamala Harris’ residence in Washington, D.C. on Christmas Eve, a move that was chastised by Democrats.