The state of Texas will soon see the construction of a permanent border wall, the state's Land Commissioner George P. Bush, grandson of former president George H. W. Bush, said during a Thursday appearance on NewsNation's The Donlon Report.
"We will be breaking ground in a matter of days," Bush said. "In the coming days, we'll make an announcement in Starr County, which is in the Rio Grande Valley, where roughly 40 percent of all illegal immigrant apprehensions in our country occur."
Construction of the wall comes at the request of Texas' Republican Governor Greg Abbott who has long favored such a measure as a means of cracking down on illegal migration. In June, Abbott made a major push for the wall's construction by starting a private donation campaign that has since raised over $54 million.
Steps to have the wall actually built were started after the state's General Land Office (GLO), run by Bush, reached an agreement with Texas' Department of Public Safety (DPS) to begin construction.
DPS has served as a major force in Abbott's crackdown at the border under his "Operation Lone Star" initiative that launched in March. The strategy utilizes DPS and the Texas National Guard to prevent migrant crossings through a number of deterrents that have included actions such as placing physical hurdles, like steel shipping containers, on borderlines. It has also led to a number of migrant arrests for criminal trespassing charges.
"[Operation Lone Star] allows us to apprehend detain, understand the folks in the risk profile the folks that are coming across, and then to be able to jail them," Bush said. "So it's a catch-and-jail policy rather than catch-and-release."
Bush, is running for the position of state attorney general in a crowded 2022 race. Unlike his family members who have denounced the former president, Bush has supported Donald Trump, who in turn has also seen the support of Abbott. Despite his friendly behavior toward the former president, Bush lost out on a Trump endorsement to incumbent Attorney General Ken Paxton.
59 percent of Republicans in the state place the combination of immigration and border security at the top of "the most important problems facing the state," a June poll by the University of Texas and Texas Tribune found. On top of this, 46 percent of individuals in the state approved of Abbott's handling of border security as opposed to the 37 percent who disproved and the 15 percent who were unsure.
When it comes to the race for attorney general, Bush's support for the construction of a border wall could prove to be a winning ticket to becoming the state's chief legal officer.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Alex J. Rouhandeh serves as Newsweek's congressional correspondent, reporting from Capitol Hill and the campaign trail. Over his tenure with ... Read more
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