Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) tore into a National Guardsman for his role in smuggling at least one illegal across the border. Savion Johnson now faces charges of smuggling of persons, evading arrest, and unlawful carry of a weapon. Speaking with Dana Perino and Bill Hemmer on their Fox News segment America’s Newsroom, the Governor didn’t hesitate to call Johnson on the carpet for his decisions.
“I consider this person to be a traitor, a criminal fighting back against what we’re trying to do in the state of Texas. We are using our National Guard to repel and to stop illegal immigration. To have a member of the National Guard be involved in assisting illegal immigration is reprehensible. Know this: I just recently signed a law that increased the penalties for smuggling illegal immigrants to a mandatory minimum of 10 years behind bars…Anybody who comes in and smuggles illegal immigrants, and you’re gonna be caught, you’re gonna be spending a long time behind bars in Texas.”
Senate Bill 4 was signed by Gov. Abbott into law on December 18th. Under this bill, illegal entry to Texas is now a state misdemeanor. However, in January, the Justice Department announced that it was filing a suit to stop its enforcement. With the Border Patrol reporting 850k encounters with illegals so far in 2024 alone, Texas is caught right in the crosshairs as it has the lion’s share of our border with Mexico.
Comparatively, Border Patrol reported 2 million encounters in FY 2023, 2.2 million in FY 2022, and 1.6 million in FY 2021. As we can see, the problem is only getting worse, and people like Johnson are responsible for this invasion.
