A growing number of left-wing figures are calling upon President Joe Biden to federalize the Texas National Guard in response to Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R-TX) refusal to step down regarding the border dispute.
The Biden administration has been at odds with Texas over immigration for years, but tensions reached a new height this month when the Supreme Court effectively ruled that Texas must relinquish control of a critical part of the U.S.-Mexico border. Abbott refused to follow the ruling, arguing that it went against his constitutional duty. While the Biden administration plans its next move, a growing number of left-wing figures are calling for Biden to take the drastic move of federalizing the Texas National Guard.
“Governor Greg Abbott is using the Texas National Guard to obstruct and create chaos at the border,” Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) wrote in a post on X. “If Abbott is defying yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling, @POTUS needs to establish sole federal control of the Texas National Guard now.”
Many Democrats cited the previous example of President Dwight Eisenhower’s decision to federalize the Arkansas National Guard after then-Gov. Orval Eugene Faubus mobilized it to prevent the implementation of Brown v. Board of Education’s ruling.
“Abbott is using the Texas Guard to defy a Supreme Court ruling. When Gov. Faubus did this in 1957, Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas Guard to ensure compliance with the law,” former presidential and governor candidate Beto O’Rourke wrote in a post on X. “Biden must follow this example of bold, decisive leadership to end this crisis before it gets worse.”
Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX) also threw his support behind the move, claiming that “Abbott is following the Donald Trump playbook: make immigration harder and more dangerous, so asylum seekers are pushed into the hands of cartels and the system remains broken.”
Columnists in outlets such as the Daily Beast, Philadelphia Inquirer, and Daily Kos, either known for being liberal or being described as such, elaborated on the justification for federalizing the National Guard, with many directly comparing Abbott’s actions with those of the Confederate States of America.
Will Bunch, writing in the Philadelphia Inquirer, declared that “Eagle Pass is today’s Fort Sumter” and that Biden should act accordingly. He went a step further in the comparison, however, saying that the situation in Eagle Pass, Texas, is worse than that in Fort Sumter.
“No one was actually killed* during the bombardment of the federal fort off Charleston by rebel forces of the newly formed Confederacy,” Bunch wrote. “But four migrants trying to reach U.S. soil at or near the disputed park in Eagle Pass, Tex., have drowned under circumstances that are arguably linked to the dispute between the militaristic approach of the Texas National Guard and the comparatively humane, locked-out agents of President Joe Biden’s administration.”
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Meanwhile, nearly half the governors of the United States have thrown their support behind Abbott, joined on Thursday with a strong show of support from former President Donald Trump.
“We encourage all willing States to deploy their guards to Texas to prevent the entry of Illegals, and to remove them back across the Border,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “All Americans should support the commonsense measures by Texas authorities to protect the Safety, Security, and Sovereignty of Texas, and of the American people.”
