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11 governors set to visit Texas border to call attention to immigration issues

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MISSION, Texas — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and 10 other Republican governors are set to visit the U.S.-Mexico border in Mission to call attention to unauthorized immigration Wednesday.

Along with Abbott and other Texas officials, the like-minded governors of Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Wyoming are set to hold a press conference about the border crisis at about 1 p.m. ET.

Abbott said he and his fellow state leaders will discuss action that they’re taking to secure the border and keep communities safe.

“Texas is not sitting on the sidelines of this border crisis (and) neither are governors across our nation,” Abbott tweeted Tuesday.

In a press release, Idaho Gov. Brad Little said he’s traveling to the border to “witness firsthand the crisis playing out,” to reveal proposed solutions, and to call on President Joe Biden to “act to secure the border immediately.”

GOP governors across the country have been critical of many of Biden’s policies, including the Democrat’s handling of the situation at the border. Those criticisms were heightened when thousands of migrants, many from Haiti, set up makeshift camps along the Rio Grande River. Those camps have now largely been dispersed.

During the trip, Little’s office says the governors will also take a boat tour of the Rio Grande River with Texas Department of Public Safety agents.

The U.S. has seen a rise in the number of migrants at the border in recent months. The U.S. Border Patrol reported nearly 200,000 encounters with migrants along the border in July, the highest monthly total in more than two decades, according to Pew Research.

The migrants are traveling to the border for a number of reasons, but many are fleeing terrible living conditions in some Central American and Caribbean countries, with hopes of a better life in the U.S.