With Mexican authorities reporting that smugglers are moving high volumes of people in small parties in single-file lines to avoid detection in "ant operations," Republican Texas gubernatorial candidate Don Huffines recently spoke out.
The Center for Immigration Studies reports that the Mexican government has distributed "QR code visas" to tens of thousands of immigrants in the country. The QR codes are part of an honor system in which the recipients are told to report to a certain Mexican immigration office on a particular date.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has promised to hold these immigrants in Mexico, but many of them aim to reach the United States, and many of the QR code visas have been found discarded along the riverbanks of the Del Rio on the Texas-Mexico border.
"Mexico is being a bad neighbor," Huffines said. "Not only do they grant illegal aliens passage to the Texas Border, but they are secretly aiding them. In seven years, Greg Abbott has not secured our border. When I am governor, I will close down the bridges on the border, all owned by Texas, to place economic pressure on Mexico to do their part to stop the illegal invasion into Texas."
According to a poll conducted by Quinnipiac from Dec. 2-6, 2021, 33% of Texans say border security is the “most urgent issue” facing Texas today– followed by the economy (11%), abortion (9%), COVID-19 (8%) and election integrity (8%). More than half of Texans surveyed by Quinnipiac support Texas building a wall along its Mexican border; 85% of Republicans want a wall, 48% of independents and 10% of Democrats.
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) data shows that border patrol agent encounters with people trying to enter the U.S. between Oct. 1, 2020, and Sept. 30, 2021, rose to 1.956 million, up from 646,822 during the previous year.
Huffines is the CEO of Huffines Communities, a Dallas/Fort Worth-based real estate development firm, and from 2015 to 2019 served in the Texas Senate, representing the people of Texas' 16th senate district.
Huffines joins a crowded field, along with former Florida Congressman and Texas GOP Chairman Allen West and media personality Chad Prather, challenging Abbott in the Mar. 1 GOP gubernatorial primary, according to Ballotpedia.
Former El Paso City Council member and U.S. Congressman Robert Francis "Beto" O'Rourke leads the Democratic field for nomination to run for governor. He mounted two unsuccessful campaigns for U.S. Senate and president of the United States.
Elected in 2014, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is currently serving as the 48th governor of Texas. Before being elected governor, Abbott was the longest-serving attorney general of Texas.
