Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott said President Biden's press secretary was "uninformed" in her rhetoric about the state's border security measures, adding Thursday he believes the state will prevail in the courts over the Biden administration.
Karine Jean-Pierre said in a new interview it was "unfortunate" that Abbott "has politicized this issue of what's happening on the border, and it's not making people's lives safer."
"It's actually making it harder for law enforcement at the border to do their job," she told CNN.
Abbott fired back on "America's Newsroom" Thursday, calling it "a very uninformed comment on her part."
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"There's really only one person in America not doing their job, and that's the President of the United States, who's not enforcing immigration laws," he said.
"Also, as she has already been called out, and the president and other Democrats and media, they have cast a false narrative about some people dying on the border, that apparently Texas denied Border Patrol access to, that's been completely debunked."
The U.S. Supreme Court sided with the Biden administration on Monday in a case involving a razor wire fence along Texas’ border with Mexico, allowing Border Patrol agents to cut concertina wire that Texas had installed while litigation continues.
But Abbott said the high court only issued two sentences and did not hand down an opinion on the matter. He expressed confidence that the state will prevail if the case is heard "on its merits."
"I think, maybe, we will get it to the Fifth Circuit on its merits, where I believe we can win. And I do believe when it gets to the Supreme Court, we can win… No one knows what the [justices] were thinking at all. All we know is they wanted to send it back to the Fifth Circuit," he told Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino.
Abbott said the Biden administration had broken the compact between the federal government and the state of Texas as laid out by the Constitution.
"Included in that agreement was the compact that the federal government would take care of the states and Article IV, Section IV of the Constitution speaks to that and says that if the federal government does not take care of the states and the states are in danger… we can ask the federal government to live up to its obligations."
"Then the authors of the Constitution knew there would be times when the federal government would not live up to its duty and so they empowered states in Article I, Section X, the right of self-defense," he added. "What Texas is asserting is our Article I, Section X right of self-defense because the President of the United States is not fulfilling his duty to enforce the laws passed by Congress that deny illegal entry into the United States."
In a 5-4 vote Monday, the justices granted an emergency appeal from the Biden administration as part of the escalating standoff at the border with Texas.
When asked if he would instruct Texas law enforcement officers to physically prevent federal officers from accessing the contested part of the border, Abbott said "the Biden administration has really, truly abdicated its responsibility to secure the border and enforce the laws."
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"Texas, very simply, is securing the border," he added. "There are criminals coming across our border. Texas has a right as a state to stop criminals from coming into our state to make arrests of those criminals. We have National Guard, as well as Texas Department of Public Safety officers, who are there to make those arrests and to deny illegal entry."
"Joe Biden actually does have an option here," he added. "Joe Biden's option is to enforce the laws of the United States and stop this illegal entry."
Fox News' Bill Melugin and Bradford Betz contributed to this report.
