TEXAS FIGHTS BACK: Gov. Abbott blocks funding for hosing unaccompanied migrant kids, tells Biden to ‘come fix it himself’

The White House and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott are locked in a standoff after the Lone Star State moved to block federal housing for unaccompanied illegal immigrant children, according to a report.

Abbott, who will accompany former President Donald Trump on a visit to the border on Wednesday, has ordered state child care regulators to pull the licenses for shelters that serve illegal immigrant children beginning Aug. 31. Abbott’s move would further complicate the Biden administration’s response to the growing crisis at the border of record-smashing numbers of illegal crossers month after month. “The federal government must solve the federal problem caused by the Biden administration’s disastrous open-border policies,” Abbott wrote to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra.

“Texas will not be commandeered into federal government service.” Abbott, who announced earlier this month that Texas would build a wall along the border, pointed to the Biden administration’s use of emergency shelters like military bases to house the children as his reason to pull support at the state level. “The federal government cannot force a state to do the federal government’s job,” he wrote.

Texas is among a handful of Republican-led states that have refused to help HHS arrange housing for the tens of thousands of minor migrants in the government’s care, noting the huge financial cost they would have to shoulder, as well as the possibility of overrunning state resources. HHS deputy general counsel Paul Rodriguez sent Abbott and other state officials a letter asking for specifics on how they would carry out the order and are awaiting a response. “We are exploring our options, for the sake of protecting the safety and well-being of unaccompanied children at licensed facilities in Texas,” a spokesperson told Politico.