Ricketts Visits Texas Border, Touts Plan to End Immigration Crisis

Oct. 6, 2021, 2 p.m. ·

Governor Pete Ricketts
Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts with Texas Governor Greg Abbott (seated) and other Republican governors at a press conference along the border in Texas. (Photo from livestream)

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Governor Pete Ricketts was in South Texas Wednesday, a guest of Texas Governor Greg Abbott. He was part of a tour of border protection operations in an area that has been inundated with undocumented immigrants.

Ricketts was with a number of other Republican governors, including Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, on the tour of the border area. Wearing blue jeans, boots and a blue shirt, Ricketts was seen talking to Abbott and the other governors in front of a backdrop of military Humvees and other vehicles. The group presented a ten-point proposal to end the immigration crisis, including calling up more National Guard troops to help protect the southern border.

“Now look folks, this is not new,” Ricketts said. “Four previous administrations have deployed National Guard troops to the border to be able to help out with this crisis down here. The Biden administration needs to call-up more soldiers to be able to do that. That can do that under Title X so that the states don’t bear the cost.”

The press conference was just a few miles from the Mexico border in Mission, Texas. Ricketts also said the practice of so-called “catch and release”, where undocumented immigrants are released after they’re apprehended, has to stop.

“What this does is just incentivize people to come across the border illegally because they are then released and that is creating a crisis not only here at the border, but health hazards across our country,” Ricketts said.

He also touted Nebraska’s efforts to help Texas by sending State Patrol troopers to assist the Texas Department of Public Safety along the border in June and July.