THERE HAS BEEN AN ONGOING figurative sniping between the feds and the Lone Star State for many months over the unnecessarily contentious issue of an invasion of illegal aliens over our southern border. It now seriously threatens to graduate to literal sniping.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) finally declared an invasion at the border and took steps to halt it pursuant to, inter alia, Art. 1, §10, Cl. 3 and Art. IV, §4, of the United States Constitution. He understandably claimed Texas has a right to self-defense given the federal government is failing to do so, and in fact, is endangering the state by failing to enforce the fed’s own laws as duly enacted. It should’ve happened many months ago, but whatever…
Illicit occupant of the White House, Joey Biden, and his wholly incompetent minion, Alejandro Mayorkas, tried to circumvent the State of Texas in its attempts at border restraints, including razor wire installation, meant to discourage aliens from entering illegally. Of particular concern was the razor wire at Shelby Park in an invasion hotspot known as Eagle Pass, Texas, which had been taken over by the state in a further attempt to control illegal immigration. Since Jan. 10th, Border Patrol was blocked from accessing the park in the tiny town.
There was a basis for the federal lawsuit, inasmuch as federal law preempts state law on matters of immigration. But the Biden regime just went in and cut the wire installed by the Texas National Guard, fueling the fire into what may become a raging inferno.The Biden regime ultimately won this round on Monday after the matter went to the U.S. Supreme Court which ruled, 5-4, without elaboration, that Border Patrol agents under Biden could cut through the razor wire and remove it ‘if necessary,’ while also remanding the case to the lower court for adjudication. (It isn’t a ‘Biden victory’ as some reporters have described it. The legal argument for a stay was probably deficient as drafted. The merits have yet to be heard.)
The ‘if necessary’ part of the deal is allegedly in response to three migrants drowning in the Rio Grande as they tried to enter the country illegally (as opposed to being a mere pretext for the invasion). In other words, it’s to allow the federal government to rush to give free emergency medical care to the illegals that American citizens wouldn’t be entitled to receive. The illegal aliens who drowned were later beatified by N.P.R., P.B.S. and other mainstream media complicit in the Biden regime’s propaganda efforts.(See any links herein, for example.)
However, what was blatantly wrong with the outcome at the Supreme Court, as Abbott has made clear, is that the federal government isn’t enforcing it own federal immigration laws and, in fact, has refused to—to Texas’ indisputable detriment.
Meanwhile, the p!ssing contest between the feds and Lone Star State has been somewhat successful in limiting migrants from Eagle Pass, but now, instead, they are entering the country at crossings north of the park and onto private ranches. Illegal aliens don’t distinguish, or care to, between public and private lands. Neither, it seems, does the illicit Biden regime. In response to outcries from affected ranchers, Texas offered to install free razor wire on their lands. It’s a very small concession, but some $10 billion in state money has been used since March of 2021 to try to curb the crisis affecting 1,200 miles of the border in Abbott’s Operation Lone Star. A lot!
Very few illegal aliens entering the country in this way are ever detained. Since Oct. 1st, there have been at least 96,000 ‘gotaways’ at the southern border, a Customs and Border Protection source told Fox News. The futility of the situation isn’t lost on some ranchers, who, despite razor- and concertina wire, have been unable to keep the illegals off their property. What can you really do when Border Patrol is relegated to making illegal aliens sandwiches for their northbound journeys? What can you do when the federal government only manages to post a bilingual sign reading, “No migrant processing at this location. Please proceed to nearest port of entry for processing with U.S. Border Patrol?”
Abbott isn’t done enforcing the laws the feds refuse to enforce. Late in 2023, the state legislature passed a bill scheduled to go into effect in March which will permit state police to arrest those they suspect are illegally crossing the border into Texas and charge them with state crimes. The A.C.L.U., inexplicably mute on the Biden regime’s many transgressions of Americans’ civil liberties, has suddenly mustered the cahones to challenge Abbott’s treatment of lawbreakers.
On Wednesday after the SCOTUS ruling, Abbott released his statement (here) declaring an invasion,Texas’ right to self defense, and “lawless [putative] president [Biden].” (Brackets added.). Abbott’s statement actually reads as a good start to articles of impeachment for both Biden and Mayorkas. On Thursday, the Biden regime issued a Friday deadline for Abbott to order the Texas National Guard to allow Border Patrol back to cut down the razor wire. (When similar demands were made to abandon illegal ‘sanctuary city or state’ statuses, though, nothing was done then, so why should anythings be done here and now?) Also on Thursday, after Abbott’s statement, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) immediately announced Florida’s support, in personnel and supplies, for Texas. It was a moment of fast thinking that he didn’t miss. Some 24 other governors nationwide added theirs, too, and issued a joint statement on X (here.)
Meanwhile, in Washington, which isn’t as impacted by the folly of their own failed policies, Congress continues stalling tactics at solving the crisis by extended recesses, demands for pay raises, and per diems. As if World War III isn’t a big enough challenge for the Big Guy, add a Civil War. However this all plays out, it will become a pretty compelling docudrama someday.
Some commentators like to point out the unprecedented nature of the state’s response, as if that, ipso facto, makes it unacceptable, but such people, when pressed, have to admit the scale, scope, and effects of the illegal alien invasion are also unprecedented. The Fifth Circuit will hear the merits in February.
sua sponte 