(Anchorage, AK) – On Monday, Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor joined 26 other states in an Iowa and Utah-led letter to the Biden Administration, supporting Texas’s border defense. 

“The lack of resolve by the federal government under the current administration is causing a catastrophe at the border that is impacting law abiding Americans across our country,” said Governor Mike Dunleavy. “I’m proud to stand with Governor Abbot, and his efforts to do what the federal government should be doing and secure the border. The current administration in Washington is failing its citizens and has completely abrogated its responsibility to secure our borders.”

Since President Biden took office, more than six million immigrants have illegally crossed the southern border—roughly the population of Iowa and Utah combined. So, too, has a flood of deadly drugs, an influx of human trafficking, and increased encounters with individuals on the terror watchlist. In just one month, Border Patrol agents–acting on the Biden Administration’s orders–cut Texas’s border defense wires more than 20 times. In one case, they even used a forklift to raise the wire and usher in more than 300 people.  Because these new arrivals have not been vetted in anyway, it is impossible to tell how many are simply peaceful migrants looking for a new life rather than those who prey on others and are part of broader criminal networks.

Since the Biden Administration has failed to do its job and secure the border, States like Texas have stepped up to protect their citizens. A federal district court found that Texas’s border defense wires reduced illegal border crossings by more than two-thirds. Those barriers protect not just Texans from millions of illegal border crossings, but the rest of the nation.

“President Biden is using the people of Texas as a buffer between his dangerous policies and the rest of the American population,” said Attorney General Taylor. “The federal government may have authority to manage the border and immigration policies, but that does not mean that states like Texas have to stand idly by and suffer the consequences of the President’s disastrous border policies. Alaska stands with Governor Abbott and the people of Texas as they hold the line. If the Federal Government wants the sole authority to manage the border, then it has to enforce the law and secure the border.”

The States demand that the Biden Administration either enforce the laws that secure the southern border or allow States like Texas to take action.

Alaska joined the Iowa and Utah-led letter, along with Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming, and the Arizona State Legislature.

• Letter Supporting Texas’s Efforts to Secure the Border – PDF(343KB)

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