EAGLE PASS, Texas — Missouri Governor Mike Parson is visiting the U.S.-Mexico border on Sunday.
He will be joined by Texas Governor Greg Abbott and 13 other Republican governors. The visit includes a briefing on the Operation Lone Star mission and its efforts to secure the southern border.
It's in response to what Abbott's office has called President Joe Biden's "reckless open border policies."
"The Executive Branch of the United States has a constitutional duty to enforce federal laws protecting States, including immigration laws on the books right now," the statement said.
According to reporting from the Associated Press, Biden has made some strong claims over the past few days about shutting down the U.S.-Mexico border as he tries to salvage a border deal in Congress that would also unlock money for Ukraine.
The deal had been in the works for months and seemed to be nearing completion in the Senate before it began to fall apart, the AP reported, largely because Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump doesn't want it to happen.
“A bipartisan bill would be good for America and help fix our broken immigration system and allow speedy access for those who deserve to be here, and Congress needs to get it done,” Biden said over the weekend. “It’ll also give me as president, the emergency authority to shut down the border until it could get back under control. If that bill were the law today, I’d shut down the border right now and fix it quickly.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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