Texas Governor Greg Abbott has not stopped the Texas Department of Public Safety state troopers and Texas National Guard from continuing to secure the border. Last week, the United States Supreme Court came to a 5-4 decision to allow the US Border Patrol to cut concertina wire (razor wire) that Gov. Abbott has put in place on the border of Mexico. However, Gov. Abbott has not stopped that process. According to the one-page ruling from the Supreme Court, it only vacated the 5th Circuit of Appeals decision. It does not mention the state was required to remove the razor wire, they just can’t stop the Border Patrol from cutting it.
Yesterday, Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024, Gov. Abbott issued a statement on Texas’ constitutional right to defend and protect itself as President Joe Biden continues to attack Texas and refuse to perform his duties to secure the border. This contention between the governor and president has been going on for a while. When President Joe Biden came into office in January of 2021, illegal immigration had spiked to 618% at the southwest border. In the fiscal year 2020 (Oct. 1, 2019 – Sept. 31, 2020) illegal immigrant encounters were 400,651 and in fiscal year 2023 there were 2,475,669 illegal immigrant encounters. From Oct. 1, 2023 to Dec. 31, 2023 there has been 785,404 illegal immigrant encounters on the southwest border.
Gov. Abbott posted on X, formerly known as Twitter a picture of four guards rolling out razor wire with a statement: “Texas’ razor wire is an effective deterrent against the illegal border crossings encouraged by Biden’s open border policies. We continue to deploy this razor wire to repel illegal immigration.” The 5-4 decision comes on the heels of the Texas Military Dept. taking over Shelby Park in Eagle Pass and not allowing that space to be used by Border Patrol. US Homeland Security and the US Justice Dept. sent a letter to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to try to force the state to give up Shelby Park and continue to allow Border Patrol access, but Paxton sent a letter back explaining in detail as to why they will not let Border Patrol in the park. (related story here)
Since 2021, surveys have continued to show that a majority of Americans feel like the US is in a “Cold Civil War”. Not person against person, but the idea that Americans are not getting the truth from the federal government or the national media. On Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024, former Secret Service Agent and Senate Candidate for Maryland, Dan Bongino stated on Truth Social, “The cold civil war I warned you about is getting warmer. Texas is the most important story in the country right now.” In past 24 hours several 25 state governors, DeSantis (FL), Lee (TN), Youngkin (VA), Kemp (GA) Ivey (AL), Noem (SD), Gianforte (MT), Little (ID) Cox (UT), Justice (WV), Stitt (OK), Pillen (NE), Landry (LA), Huckabee-Sanders (AR), Burgum (ND), Reynolds (IA), Gordon (WY), Dunleavy (AK), Holcomb (IN), Reeves (MS), Parson (MO), Lombardo (NV), Sununu (NH), DeWine (OH), McMaster (SC) have come out in support of Gov. Abbott. Of the 27 Republican governors, outside of Gov. Abbott, only one so far has not openly or publicly supported Gov. Abbott. That is Vermont Governor Phil Scott.
Here is Gov. Abbott’s full statement for yesterday, Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024.
The federal government has broken the compact between the United States and the States. The Executive Branch of the United States has a constitutional duty to enforce federal laws protecting States, including immigration laws on the books right now. President Biden has refused to enforce those laws and has even violated them. The result is that he has smashed records for illegal immigration.
Despite having been put on notice in a series of letters—one of which I delivered to him by hand—President Biden has ignored Texas’s demand that he perform his constitutional duties.
- President Biden has violated his oath to faithfully execute immigration laws enacted by Congress. Instead of prosecuting immigrants for the federal crime of illegal entry, President Biden has sent his lawyers into federal courts to sue Texas for taking action to secure the border.
- President Biden has instructed his agencies to ignore federal statutes that mandate the detention of illegal immigrants. The effect is to illegally allow their en masse parole into the United States.
- By wasting taxpayer dollars to tear open Texas’s border security infrastructure, President Biden has enticed illegal immigrants away from the 28 legal entry points along this State’s southern border— bridges where nobody drowns—and into the dangerous waters of the Rio Grande.
Under President Biden’s lawless border policies, more than 6 million illegal immigrants have crossed our southern border in just 3 years. That is more than the population of 33 different States in this country. This illegal refusal to protect the States has inflicted unprecedented harm on the People all across the United States.
James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and the other visionaries who wrote the U.S. Constitution foresaw that States should not be left to the mercy of a lawless president who does nothing to stop external threats like cartels smuggling millions of illegal immigrants across the border. That is why the Framers included both Article IV, § 4, which promises that the federal government “shall protect each [State] against invasion,” and Article I, § 10, Clause 3, which acknowledges “the States’ sovereign interest in protecting their borders.” Arizona v. United States, 567 U.S. 387, 419 (2012) (Scalia, J., dissenting).
The failure of the Biden Administration to fulfill the duties imposed by Article IV, § 4 has triggered Article I, § 10, Clause 3, which reserves to this State the right of self-defense. For these reasons, I have already declared an invasion under Article I, § 10, Clause 3 to invoke Texas’s constitutional authority to defend and protect itself. That authority is the supreme law of the land and supersedes any federal statutes to the contrary. The Texas National Guard, the Texas Department of Public Safety, and other Texas personnel are acting on that authority, as well as state law, to secure the Texas border.
