Former DHS Acting Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli pushed back against claims made by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott that his new Texas Tactical Border Force is "repelling" migrants at the Mexico border. On "Fox & Friends" Wednesday, Cuccinelli called the Republican governor's deployment of National Guard troops a "photo op" ahead of the expiration of Title 42.
FOX NEWS FOOTAGE CAPTURES HUNDREDS OF MIGRANTS CROSSING INTO TEXAS AS TITLE 42’S END APPROACHES
KEN CUCCINELLI: He's saying things like, we're repelling people at the border. Look, that is B.S. Greg and I served as attorneys general together. He was an aggressive attorney general, and he is laying back with the authority to stop this, over 1,200 miles of this border.
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Sending soldiers to the border to watch people cross is a photo op. It is not repelling the invasion.
BRIAN KILMEADE: He says he is sending people back, he is not?
CUCCINELLI: He is absolutely not. Absolutely not. You're showing the footage. They can put Texas personnel on that border and stop the flow between the legal ports of entry and they're not doing it.
Abbott announced the new Texas Tactical Border Force on Monday ahead of the expiration of the Title 42 public health order, which helped block migrants from entering the U.S.
In response to "Joe Biden’s reckless border policies," the Texas National Guard is loading Black Hawk helicopters and C-130s to deploy specially trained National Guard members to "hotspots along the border to intercept, to repel and to turn back migrants who are trying to enter Texas illegally," Abbott said at a press conference from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.
In a statement, the Texas National Guard said it activated 545 more service members at locations around the state Monday to "reinforce the border mission in anticipation of the end of Title 42 immigration restrictions."
The Texas Tactical Border Force is meant to bolster Operation Lone Star, which Abbott said has turned back 37,000 people who already came across the border illegally, arrested about 27,000 dangerous criminals, including "cartel gang members" who are wanted for crimes like murder, and seized "enough fentanyl that would have been enough to kill every man, woman and child in the United States."
Fox News' Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.
