SAN ANTONIO – As global concerns rise over the omicron variant of COVID-19, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Sunday took aim at President Joe Biden’s immigration policies.
Multiple countries, including the United States, restricted travel from South Africa and seven other African nations where the variant has been most prevalent. Abbott said the policy move amounts to “pure politics and hypocrisy” citing apprehensions at the border.
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Biden banned travel from South Africa because of the new Covid variant.
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) November 28, 2021
Immigrants have recently been apprehended crossing our border illegally from South Africa.
Biden is doing nothing to stop immigrants from South Africa entering illegally.
Pure politics and hypocrisy.
“Immigrants have recently been apprehended crossing our border illegally from South Africa,” Abbott wrote on Twitter. “Biden is doing nothing to stop immigrants from South African entering illegally.”
Though South African nationals have been arrested crossing the United States border in past years, a KSAT analysis showed how rarely it has occurred.
According to border apprehension numbers provided by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, a total of 62 South African nationals were arrested while crossing the southwest border between 2007 and 2020, making up 0.0009% of the 6,823,315 border apprehensions over that time period.
Because the number of South African nationals crossing the border is so minuscule, the department does not include the nation in monthly updates on its website, so it is unclear how recently anyone from South Africa has been arrested at the border during fiscal year 2021. In fiscal year 2020, six such apprehensions were reported.
Abbott has continued to hammer the Biden administration on immigration amid an influx in migrant crossings.
Though October’s border crossing numbers represented a third consecutive monthly decrease, the figures were still much higher than previous years.
In response, Abbott launched Operation Lone Star, stepping up the state’s enforcement efforts on border crossings.