Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said Sunday that the immigration policies of the Biden administration and the Department of Justice are “aiding and abetting” cartels in the record surge of illegal entries at the southern border.
The Biden administration says it will sue Texas if the state enforces a new immigration law that would allow state officials to arrest and detain those who enter the country illegally but release those who agree to return to Mexico and not proceed with criminal charges.
“They’re helping aid and abet the cartels, and then Texas says, ‘We’ve had enough, we’re gonna do something about it,’ and then they threaten us from enforcing our own laws,” Mr. Paxton said on “Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo.”
The remarks from Mr. Paxton, a Republican, come amid a record of more than 268,000 illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border in December.
Senators and administration officials are in bipartisan talks over southern border policies as part of a national security package that includes funding for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan, in addition to humanitarian aid for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
“It seems pretty crazy, and hard to believe, that we have a government that is working against its own citizens and helping the cartels move as many people across the border as possible,” Mr. Paxton said.