Republican Texas Rep. Troy Nehls said Thursday that “it’s a great idea” to use shipping containers to blockade the southern border and discourage illegal immigrants from entering the United States.
“I think it’s a great idea. It’s a tool that the governor is using to try to help slow down, curb this invasion,” Nehls told “Fox & Friends.” “This invasion that we’re seeing at our southern border.”
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“But, this is the issue: [DHS Secretary Alejandro] Mayorkas is a fool and I think he’s lied to the American people. Joe Biden is asleep at the wheel — not only here but when he travels overseas — and [Vice President] Kamala [Harris] is missing in action,” he said.
“I think the the governor is looking at this like a defensive position. You kind of look at my military training; you want to try to find a way to slow down the surge and you want to channel these people into areas that we can handle them better becauses we have 1200, 1500 miles of border in Texas and we’re doing the federal government’s job for them because they refuse to do it on their own.” (RELATED: Gov. Abbott Says Texas Is Fighting Back Against Biden Over ‘Open Border Policies’)
Sections of the border wall remain unfinished even though the material necessary to complete the project sits unused. The Biden administration was paying $3 million a day to not continue building the wall. Despite a court ruling that it resume the use of the Remain in Mexico policy, the Biden administration announced in late October that it will again repeal the p0licy.
Nehls said the shipping containers in question are those found on the back of 18-wheel trucks. He said they are eight feet in height and up to 30 feet in length. “So if these individuals are going to approach one of those barriers, number one, some may attempt to climb over it.” But the congressman insisted “many of them” will stop and try to find another means of illegally entering the country.
President Joe Biden arrives for the COP26 UN Climate Summit on Nov. 1, 2021 in Glasgow, U.K. (Adrian Dennis/Pool/Getty Images)
The congressman argued that Americans are getting fed up with the Biden administration’s border policy.
“Look at what took place in Virginia the other day and across our entire country with the elections,” Nehls said, citing Democratic reversals in a number if electoral contests.
Abbott says the crisis at the border has escalated into “a shooting war” as Mexican drug cartels exchange fire with Texas National Guard members.