Governor Gianforte, 13 Governors Visit Southern Border

Receive briefing from Texas law enforcement officials

• February 05 2024

EAGLE PASS, Tex. – Joining over a dozen of the nation’s Republican governors, Governor Greg Gianforte yesterday participated in a joint press conference at the southern border.

“We have an invasion at the southern border and President Biden is sitting on his hands,” Gov. Gianforte said. “Montana stands with Governor Abbott and the men and women in uniform as they work to protect the American people from the drugs and terrorists pouring across our border.”

Gov. Gianforte speaking at a press conference in Eagle Pass, Texas

Receiving a briefing from Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) Deputy Director Freeman Martin, Major General Thomas Suelzer of the Texas Military Department, and Texas Border Czar Mike Banks, the governors heard of the steps Texas has taken to secure the border in the absence of support and action from the federal government.

Since Joe Biden took office, there have been over 10 million illegal crossings into the United States. In 2023, law enforcement officials arrested 169 migrants who were on the terrorist watchlist.

Highlighting the critical need for continued support from states, Texas Governor Greg Abbott shared of their border security efforts. Noting that while the state occupies 66 percent of the over 2,000 miles of shared border between the U.S. and Mexico, recent figures show migrant crossings into Texas account for 30 percent of total crossings.

Last year alone, Texas DPS saw a 79 percent decrease in crossings in the Eagle Pass sector.

During the press conference, governors reaffirmed their support for Texas and highlighted the Biden administration’s failure to secure the southern border.

“Our visit comes on the heels of Republican governors’ consistent, repeated calls to Joe Biden to secure the border and protect our citizens. By refusing to act, Biden is inviting cartels, illegal drugs, and human trafficking into the United States and making every state a border state,” the governor said.

According to the Drug Enforcement Agency’s Rocky Mountain Field Division, more than 3 million fentanyl pills were seized in 2023, a 78 percent year-over-year increase, in the region that includes Colorado, Utah, Montana, and Wyoming.

Gov. Gianforte took strong action to crack down on traffickers last year, signing into law increased penalties for drug trafficking, including the trafficking of fentanyl, and imposing a mandatory minimum sentence of two years of jail time, a $50,000 fine, or both, for anyone convicted of trafficking fentanyl in the state of Montana.

Concluding his fourth trip to the southern border since taking public office, the governor said, “This is impacting all our states, we’ve lost lives and its broken families apart. We need to secure our border. Governor Abbott, we’re committed to standing with you and continuing to provide resources so that we can protect the citizens of the United States, and our country.”

Watch the press conference here.