McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is planning a trip to the South Texas border on Wednesday to discuss border security in light of the Biden administration’s plans to lift Title 42.

Abbott will hold an afternoon news conference in Weslaco, Texas, at the regional headquarters of the Texas Department of Public Safety, his office announced.

He is to be joined by DPS Director Steve McCraw, Texas Division of Emergency Management Chief Nim Kidd and Adjutant General of Texas Maj. Gen. Thomas Suelzer, the new leader of the Texas Military and Texas National Guard.

These are the main leaders for Abbott’s Operation Lone Star, a state-funded border security initiative in which 10,000 National Guard troops have been stationed on the border to help with what Abbott calls a “border crisis.”

The state also is building its own state-funded section of border wall in remote Starr County in the Rio Grande Valley, a section of which is nearly 2 miles long.

Over 1.5 miles have been completed on a state-built border wall by the State of Texas in Starr County, as seen on March 23, 2022. (Sandra Sanchez/Border Report)

“President Biden’s open-border policies are an unmitigated disaster for national security,” Abbott said in a statement Friday after Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced that Title 42 would end on May 23.

Title 42 is a public health law re-enacted by the Trump administration in March 2020 to help prevent the coronavirus pandemic from spreading across international borders between Mexico, Canada and the United States. Migrants and asylum-seekers who try to cross land borders have been sent back for two years citing the threat to public health.

U.S. Border Patrol agents question two adult migrants on June 24, 2021, in Hidalgo, Texas. Most migrants who have entered illegally since March 2020 have been sent back to Mexico under Title 42. (Sandra Sanchez/Border Report File Photo)

But many border leaders fear that thousands of migrants could try to cross into the United States via the southern border once Title 42 is lifted.

While migrant advocates praise the decision and say it was just a way to keep migrants out of the United States and they repeatedly had urged President Joe Biden to revoke the law.

“Instead of listening to the millions of Americans that his administration has endangered—and instead of enforcing immigration laws passed by Congress—President Biden has chosen to jeopardize the safety and security of those very Americans he swore to protect and defend by ending Title 42 expulsions,” Abbott said. “Ending Title 42 expulsions will signal to cartels and migrants alike that our southern border is now wide open—inciting even more violence, more trafficking, and more lawlessness.”

Border Report plans to be at Abbott’s Wednesday news conference and will update with a story.