What is happening at the border is something that never happened before to this extent. I still don't get the whole picture of why or even how this is possible.

the bills to the countries of origin. Texas needs to send its bills for the children, to the US Department of State. This is an international problem, in which the TX GOP thinks it can panhandle over.
Abbott is malpracticing governership; he stinks!

But I'd also like to see something about immigration reform. I doubt you'll ever get Greg to mention anything of the sort.

One thing I think he's half-wrong about is about the cartels being central to this crisis; it's been there for decades ever since the US started enforcing entry requirements (the 1960s??? I remember even in the '90s people could sometimes get away with crossing the border by saying "US citizen" and speaking some English when asked, usually when going with a group of other US citizens. But the history of deportations by the US gov't date back as early as the 1920s).

Only recently have cartels started charging for passage to the US. For them it's a secondary but fairly lucrative side business which kind of naturally fits into their business model of controlling drug corridors in MX. He's probably half-right in that the cartel's efforts to smuggle people in are more sophisticated than the old coyote system and there has been a surge here in recent years, and it's not a stretch to think that's at least in part due to the cartel's increased efficiency of moving people. But the issue will still be there as long as people want to come to the US, with or without the cartels.

Now where the cartels have REALLY become a problem is in the border towns on the Mexican side, where they are usually the de facto enforcers of many things, including who comes into and goes out of town.