Leading Texas Newspaper Rebukes Greg Abbott’s RNC Speech

The Houston Chronicle, a leading newspaper in Texas, on Friday rebuked Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s speech that he gave at the Republican National Convention (RNC) this week.

Due to Texas’ proximity to the U.S.-Mexico border, Abbott’s speech on Wednesday focused on the surge of illegal migrant crossings in recent years. The Republican governor has implemented vast deterrence tactics and even created a program to bus migrants from Texas to Democratic-led states. Abbott’s immigration policies are currently being fought by the Biden administration in court.

“It is time to rid our streets of crime and chaos,” the governor said at the RNC in Milwaukee where two days earlier former President Donald Trump was officially named the GOP presidential nominee. “It is time to secure our border by returning Donald Trump as president of the United States of America.”

During his speech, Abbott said the Biden administration has let in “rapists, murderers, even terrorists,” which is the same rhetoric that Trump has used since his first campaign in the 2016 election cycle.

The Texas governor also mentioned Jocelyn Nungaray, a 12-year-old girl who was sexually assaulted and then killed in June. Two illegal immigrants from Venezuela—Johan Jose Martinez Rangel, 22, and Franklin Jose Pena Ramos, 26—were charged with her murder.

“Raped and murdered by two illegal immigrants. She’s one of thousands whose lives have been destroyed by Joe Biden’s open border policies,” Abbott said Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the Houston Chronicle‘s editorial board responded to the governor in an article published on Friday.

“Like Abbott, we believe in ensuring that our country has a safe, orderly and secure border. Nungaray’s death is a horrific tragedy deserving of attention and swift justice,” the newspaper’s editorial board wrote. “But as we’ve argued over and over, politicking that distracts and divides Americans will do nothing to fix our border troubles. Only congressional action can do that. And Congress has refused to get its act together to comprehensively patch up the holes that have left our legal immigration system in shambles.”

Newsweek reached out to Abbott’s office via email for comment.

A bipartisan border deal has been struck down in the Senate twice this year amid concerns from Republicans that it doesn’t go far enough to keep the country’s border safe and secure. Meanwhile, Biden and other Trump critics, have accused the former president of putting pressure on Republicans to oppose the bill so that he can campaign on the issue amid this year’s election.

Biden signed an executive order in June to effectively halt the number of migrants able to cross into the U.S. once the number of illegal entries surpasses 2,500 per day over a seven-day average. The measure immediately went into effect and illegal crossings at the southern border are now at a three-year low.

In June, there were only 130,419 documented illegal crossings, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). While this is still a high number, it is a significant decrease from the 240,930 CBP encounters last October.

The Chronicle highlighted a different side to the immigration situation in America.

Noe, a 39-year-old Mexican immigrant who gained legal status in 2015, has lived in Houston for 20 years. Every time there is a disaster, like Hurricane Beryl, which recently hit Texas, Noe is there to help clean up the mess.

“I wish Americans could just put themselves in our shoes,” Noe told The Chronicle in its recent op-ed. “Many of us are here to work, and to provide for our families. We’re not here to do bad things.”

The Houston newspaper’s editorial board wrote, “Stoking fear—whether about
immigrants or among them—isn’t leadership. Neither is demonizing otherwise law
abiding people who are doing the hard work of rebuilding our city.”