Abbott: Biden hasn’t responded to Texas’ border requests

By BETHANY BLANKLEY THE CENTER SQUARE CONTRIBUTOR

(The Center Square) — President Joe Biden hasn’t responded to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s numerous requests for help at the southern border, the Republican governor says.

During President Biden’s first visit to the border in El Paso earlier this month, Gov. Abbott provided the president a list of five solutions he says will help secure the border.

Gov. Abbott said he hasn’t received a response to what he considers a solvable problem that entails enforcing existing laws established by Congress.

In response to Biden administration policies instructing Border Patrol agents to release illegal foreign nationals into the U.S., the majority of whom are being released in Texas, Gov. Abbott launched Operation Lone Star in March 2021. Since then, law enforcement officers have apprehended more than 343,000 people from more than 150 countries and made more than 23,000 criminal arrests with over 21,000 felony charges reported, as of Jan. 20, 2023, the governor’s office reported.

“Operation Lone Star continues to fill the dangerous gaps left by the Biden Administration’s refusal to secure the border,” Gov. Abbott said. “Every individual who is apprehended or arrested and every ounce of drugs seized would have otherwise made their way into communities across Texas and the nation due to President Biden’s open border policies.”

Apprehending human smugglers is a daily occurrence as sheriffs and Department of Public Safety troopers identify foreign nationals and U.S. citizens responding to lucrative ads on social media offering to pay them to pick up people at drop off points along major highways and back roads in rural Texas, law enforcement officers told The Center Square.

His business is not the only one to feel the effects of recent criminal activity on State Street. Earlier this month, someone smashed the front window of Paradise On State Street and stole guitars and other merchandise from the music and vinyl records store. Police did not arrest anyone at that time.

A week before that, it was Tillys’ turn. Someone broke the front window at the clothing store at 917 State St. A burglary occurred, but Santa Barbara police caught the suspect.

And before that, on Christmas Eve, someone threw a rock that shattered the front window of Rudy’s restaurant at 3613 1/2 State St. A transient was arrested afterward but only for attacking a witness to the window being broken and stealing her phone. She’s facing criminal charges of robbery and theft.

But the situation faced by Mr. Pu’u goes way beyond simple vandalism and theft to straight out threats, intimidation and violence.

And, he says, it’s not just his business that was targeted.

“Had another man walking past our business and throwing glass at our windows after stealing from CVS. Cops no show.

“Had another crackhead smash tourists wine glasses off their table at the restaurant next door and proceed to violate a person in a wheelchair and run him around on State Street against his will. Cops came but the guy was on State street the next day.”

It’s not like Mr. Pu’u hasn’t tried to help people hooked on hard drugs, he said, noting, “We’ve saved two fentanyl overdoses on our business back steps.”

He said he’s counting on police to clean up the situation, but doesn’t hold out much hope given that, according to him, they’ve shown up hours after various incidents or not at all. He said police keep telling him not to take action to defend himself or protect his business but that he doesn’t know how long he can keep it up.

“I’ve been told not to defend myself by SBPD, but at this point, that’s an unreasonable request,” he said.

He made the same point in a second social media posting.

“Most recent event was yesterday and today,” he said. “Another crackhead came in yelling and harassing inside our business. He left and that was last night. He came in again this morning, and SBPD said to ‘not defend yourself’ as I could ‘get in trouble.’ At what point is this no longer OK?”

Sgt. Ethan Ragsdale, the SBPD public information officer, told the News-Press on Tuesday that he spoke to Mr. Pu’u directly over the phone.

“Mr. Puu mentioned that some of the posts he made date back to 2021, with his most recent being three weeks ago,” Sgt. Ragsdale said. “Mr. Puu and I had a very productive, positive conversation. I was able to offer him suggestions on how the Santa Barbara Police Department can assist him and provided my direct contact information. He was very thankful for the information and my personal phone call.” email: nhartsteinnewspress@ gmail.com

Nevertheless, Mr. Pu’u is more than capable of defending himself and his business if it comes down to it.

He doesn’t serve food. Nor does he sell guitars or clothing. Mr. Pu’u owns a martial arts studio, Pu’u Muay Thai Santa Barbara, which teaches Jiu Jitsu, kickboxing and Muay Thai, a martial art that was developed on the battlefields of Thailand during a time of warfare in Southeast Asia and is practiced now for fitness, self-defense and combat sports.

State Street.

In addition to design workshops and community forums, a survey was conducted in which more than 6,000 people participated, she said.

Nearly 90%, she said, cited eating and drinking as the main reason why they visit downtown, in addition to the opportunity to see and mingle with other people. And 79% said they wanted to see lower State Street continue to be closed to traffic.