Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said Vice President Harris, who in March was tapped by President Biden to lead the administration’s efforts to address the root causes of migration to the U.S. border, has not yet contacted him to discuss the matter.
“The president hasn’t called; the vice president hasn’t called. The only person I’ve talked to are some folks in the Department of Homeland Security, and that was a long time ago,” Abbott said during an interview with the Ruthless podcast.
While Harris has recently visited Central America as part of her root-causes push, the governor said the administration is acting as though the issue isn’t an immediate, local problem.
“They have a game of pretend going on, they are pretending that the Texas border does not exist because they’re not talking about it either publicly or privately or calling us or anything else like that. They just have this attitude that the Texas border with Mexico does not exist,” Abbott said.
The influx of migrants at the southern border quickly became a chief concern in the Biden administration after the beginning weeks of his presidency saw large spikes of immigrants seeking entry to the U.S.
Biden in March chose Harris to lead the administration’s efforts to stem the stream of migrants at the southern border, including working closely with Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
Last week, Harris traveled to Guatemala and Mexico for her first foreign trip as vice president to address migration.
She declared the trip a success, despite a host of criticism she faced for her statements on regional migration.
She was the target of outrage from progressives and some immigration advocates when she pleaded with Guatemalans “do not come, do not come” to the U.S., adding “I want to emphasize that the goal of our work is to help Guatemalans find hope at home.”
Harris also faced criticism for remarks during an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt, when she defended herself for not yet visiting the border by saying, “And I haven’t been to Europe. And I mean, I don’t … understand the point you’re making. I’m not discounting the importance of the border.”
When Abbott was asked during the podcast interview if “you almost feel like you’re just totally on your own,” he responded, “we are.”
“We feel like a frontier outpost going back in the mid 1800s where the federal government would rarely show up,” he added.
On Thursday, Abbott announced plans to build a wall on the southern border and the create the Governor’s Task Force on Border and Homeland Security. He also said the state will be allocating $1 billion toward border security.