Texas governor says state building more military infrastructure at border

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Friday appeared alongside Texas Adjutant General Maj. Gen. Thomas Suelzer and Texas Border Czar Mike Banks near Eagle Pass, Texas. The officials announced that construction had begun on a National Guard base at the border on 80 acres of land in the area of the city. They also unveiled plans to increase the number and effective reach of barriers along the border. Officials said hoped to eventually house more than 1,800 soldiers at the new base, accommodating roughly 300 of them by April. They added that the base would include physical training facilities.

Why are they doing this? Abbott said that National Guard forces had been previously scattered across the border, and the new base would help consolidate them. He added that the new, centralized base would also improve the living conditions of Texas National Guard soldiers. Officials touted reductions in the number of drugs and immigrants crossing the border in the Eagle Pass area. They added that they wanted to expand those policies to other areas. Abbott warned that migrant caravans were en route to Texas, and that drug and human trafficking cartels would try to cross the Texas border in areas less secure than the Eagle Pass area.

Dig deeper: Read Addie Offereins' report in Compassion about evangelicals trying to bring Biblical worldviews to the immigration debate.