Texas deploys 1,000 more troops to border after arresting migrants from 52 countries this month

“This is necessary because more than 45,000 people have been apprehended crossing our border in just the last three weeks and they’ve come from across the entire globe — coming from 52 different countries,” he said.

Presently, 1,200 National Guard troops are stationed on the border in Texas, including 200 from other states, according to an official with Abbott’s office.

In addition, 500 officers from the state’s Department of Public Safety had already been directed to the southern border to assist agents.

Some of the newly deployed guardsmen will assist at Border Patrol migrant holding facilities in the Rio Grande Valley and El Paso regions of Texas, which will hold single adults. Troops will also be assigned as enforcement for ports of entry, or international crossing points.

Abbott vowed in a press release to bill the federal government and not state residents for the supplemental troops.

Border Patrol’s parent agency, Customs and Border Protection, has asked Congress for supplemental funding because the record-high number of families arriving at the border has maxed out its facilities. Congress has not passed supplemental funding since February, when it gave CBP additional money to create temporary facilities to house people.

Abbott said Friday his action was in response to lawmakers’ inaction on the issue.

In May, 132,000 people illegally crossed into the United States from Mexico. Border Patrol breaks those numbers down by nine regions and some overlap state lines, making it impossible to know the exact number of apprehensions made in Texas alone. It was somewhere between 64,000 and 102,000 last month, Cato immigration analyst David Bier noted.

In fiscal 2017, individuals from 151 countries were taken into custody along the entire southern border.