Abbott Unveils New Border Strategy

C APITAL Highlights 

Gov. Greg Abbott said last Thursday the state is initiating a billboard campaign across Central America and border cities in northern Mexico to discourage migrants from attempting to enter Texas, the Austin American-Statesman reported.

The billboards are in multiple languages, including Spanish, Chinese, Arabic and Russian. They tell stories of migrants being sexually assaulted while trying to enter the United States.

“This is tough medicine,” Abbott said. “But we want no more rape trees in Texas. Do not make the dangerous trek to Texas.” He was referring to the ashes of a tree where migrant women were sexually assaulted by human traffickers and left to die, according to the Statesman.

Abbott is seeking another $3 billion in the next legislative session for Operation Lone Star. Since launching in March 2021, the state has spent $11 billion to deter migrants and fortify the border.

New Space Institute is Up and Running The Texas A&M Space Institute, to be located next door to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, recently broke ground on a 400,000-squarefoot facility. The $200 million facility is funded by 2023 legislation creating the Texas Space Commission with the purpose of keeping Texas at the forefront of the space program, the Texas Standard reported.

Institute Director Dr. Nancy Currie-Gregg, a former astronaut and an engineering professor, noted the U.S. and Texas face competition from many other nations with their own space programs. Among the projects to be tackled at the new institute will be rover and spacesuit development, and possibly developing concepts for a space hospital.

“It’s really meant for collaboration between academics, industry and government to achieve government goals or to achieve, just quite frankly, commercial space goals,” she told the Standard. “But it’s all about collaboration.”

Currie-Gregg added the long-term goal is traveling to Mars, but first “we really need to return to the lunar surface.”