AUSTIN, Texas — Gov. Greg Abbott declared an “invasion” at the state’s border with Mexico, the first time in modern history that a state has determined the federal government has failed to protect citizens and the state may defend itself.
“I invoked the Invasion Clauses of the U.S. & Texas Constitutions to fully authorize Texas to take unprecedented measures to defend our state against an invasion,” Abbott said in a statement Tuesday. “I’m using that constitutional authority, & other authorization & Executive Orders to keep our state & country safe.”
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BIDEN BORDER CHIEF RESIGNS AFTER REFUSING TO LEAVE
The state self-defense clause outlined in Article 1, Section 10 of the Constitution and the invasion clause in Article 4, Section 4 say that if the federal government fails to protect a state, the governor may take action for the state to protect itself.
Abbott’s declaration comes one week after he won a third four-year term as governor. Former Trump administration officials had been urging the governors of Arizona and Texas to declare an “invasion” to justify more aggressive measures to curb illegal immigration.
https://twitter.com/GregAbbott_TX/status/1592553350129909762
“We are talking about a war power. That sounds shocking to people, but we’re not talking about tanks and planes. We’re literally talking about state officials doing the same exact thing that federal officials do with Title 42,” said Ken Cuccinelli, a senior fellow at the conservative nonprofit organization Center for Renewing America, during a radio interview prior to Tuesday. Cuccinelli was referring to the pandemic public health policy that allows U.S. border officials to turn away illegal immigrants immediately rather than releasing them into the United States.
“You just grab people coming across illegally, you fingerprint them, you take their picture and put them straight back across the border,” Cuccinelli said.
In the 1990s, Arizona and other states experiencing massive numbers of illegal border crossings, mostly by Mexican men, sued the federal government, arguing that the situation qualified as an invasion. The court said it did not meet the standard because an invasion must be a foreign policy or defense matter.
“However, these decisions did not address the current situation of escalating violence and smuggling by transnational cartels and gangs,” Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich wrote in defense of the invasion clause last February. Arizona has not declared an invasion, though failed Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake had vowed to do so if she won.
Abbott previously said that declaring an invasion and having state forces enforce federal immigration laws by sending illegal immigrants to Mexico might create a “revolving door” at the border, where immigrants keep trying to enter because there is no consequence.
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“He’s run Operation Lone Star and kept your National Guard up and running for a show. He knows it doesn’t do anything,” said Cuccinelli, adding that the state could win a battle in federal court. “If you’re the federal government and you sue Texas over it … they have to prove there is not an invasion, and they have the burden of proof because they’re the plaintiff in the case. Good luck proving that today with the state of the border. I don’t think it could be done.”
Abbott did not disclose on Tuesday what the state’s next move is in light of the invasion invocation. He listed bullet points of initiatives that the state had commenced over the past year and a half, including deploying Texas National Guard and Texas state troopers to the border, returning some illegal immigrants to ports of entry for expulsion to Mexico, and building a border wall — though only a handful of miles have gone up in that time.
