You have probably heard about the friendly letter Texas Governor Greg Abbott sent to Biden earlier this week. It’s worth a read, so I include it here.
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| Governor Greg Abbott's letter, found here |
I’m in Texas, so I might be more aware of things going on in
Texas than people elsewhere. But this one is important beyond our great state.
Texas has the longest boundary with a foreign nation, Mexico,
which is generally on friendly terms with the US, since that separation by
Texas in 1835—as a result of Mexico’s tyrannical leader who stomped on their
guaranteed constitutional rights (yes, Mexico had a constitution, which their
president ignored, a pattern we may see being repeated here). And then the US
won the Mexican-American War 1846-1848. Since then the two nations have been at
peace. Mexico has not been generally as prosperous as the US. As a result,
their people have often come to the US to find work. Migrant farm workers are
among these. They can be hardworking, honest people—when they come here
legally. And there are plenty of legal immigrants with education and skills as
well, whom we welcome.
The problem has been with people who come in illegally.
There is a substantial difference between legal and illegal.
Law-abiding Americans welcome a manageable number of legal immigrants and legal
resident aliens. While we may agree that the process for legal immigrants could
be improved and streamlined, the problem at our southern border is mostly
unrelated to that process.
Just
Dealing with the Invasion
What we have is an invasion. It includes enemies of the
state from around the world. It includes drug traffickers—including the deadly
fentanyl. It includes human traffickers—slave traders of enforced labor slavery
and also child sex slavery. The Biden administration, nor the Obama administration of the past, will explain why they want to allow these enemies in.
Here in Texas, we have been calling this an invasion for a good long while. And we’ve been complaining about our governor taking so long to make that declaration. We’re glad he’s done it. And we add, “What took you so long?”
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| Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick speak with Glenn Beck, January 24, 2024 screenshot from here |
Lt. Governor Dan Patrick talked with Glenn Beck in an interview Wednesday, and he backed up the governor. He said that a lot of
things had been going on behind the scenes. The governor’s administration wasn’t
inactive.
One of the things behind the scenes was legislation that
became law in December, after the latest special legislative session (I think
there were four special sessions after the regular biennial session that closed
in May, but I lost count; Lt. Gov. Patrick just called it the umpteenth special
session).
At our Cypress Texas Tea Party meeting on Wednesday, we
heard from State Rep. Tom Oliverson, giving a report on legislation passed this
year. He highlighted three bills, and shared interesting stories. Then, even
after the Q&A, he added one more thing, which happens to be the bill Lt.
Governor Patrick referred to. So this is Rep. Oliverson:
One more
little factoid for you, because this was late breaking news. So, you know, the
border bill that we just passed—I heard some of you talking about the border
and all this kind of stuff. So, what the law says now, under state law,
is that, if DPS catches you crossing you over the border not at a port
of entry, you may be arrested on the spot, charged with a class B misdemeanor,
which means you can and will go to jail.
However, the
judge has the ability to basically waive those charges and essentially, I
guess, whatever that process is… I don’t know. But you basically give them a
pass and say, “We’re going to wipe these charges out, but only if you agree to
go back to Mexico today.” So that’s how the law is now.
Now,
obviously, the legal process is going to play out here. But, just so you know,
if you hear on TV, well, DPS [Department of Public Safety] is arresting
people, that’s because the law we just passed a couple of months ago says that
they can be arrested. And the other thing is, if they do it more than once,
they can be charged with a felony, and then they can spend a lot of years in
jail….
So they would
get arrested; they would be charged; they would have a court date, a trial;
they would be held. And then they’ll serve their time in jail, and then we’ll turn
them over to customs. So the disincentive for somebody who’s crossing into our
state illegally is, “If I get caught by DPS, at a bare minimum, I’m going to
spend six months in jail before I even see a customs and patrol agent. And if I’ve
done it more than once, I may go away for years.” After which time we’ll turn
them over to customs. So that’s how that works.
Texas has to act. We have millions of illegal aliens flowing
into our state. Some of them get bussed or flown to elsewhere in the country—that’s
done by the US government; Texas only did that with a few busloads to get media
attention. The government is doing it quietly every day, and dumping them in
troubled US cities, even up north, all those “sanctuary cities”—Chicago, New
York, etc.—which are now complaining that they’re not equipped to handle all these
people.
Still, the feds are leaving far more than can be handled in
small border towns without resources to deal with such an influx. Meanwhile the
US government is insisting they get free housing, free transportation, free
healthcare, free public education—at taxpayer expense. (Meanwhile, legal immigrants
go through years of red tape and paperwork and court costs; you’d think they
were trying to discourage legal immigration and encourage illegal
immigration.)
This is purposeful. I can’t say definitively what the
purpose is, but it’s intentional.
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| Razor wire along the Texas/Mexico border, screenshot from here |
The
Vacated Injunction
The lead-up to Governor Abbott’s letter was the Supreme Court 5-4 ruling that vacated (removed) the injunction against the federal government to keep them from interfering with Texas border patrol agents.
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| SCOTUS ruling that the injunction is vacated. |
Let’s get a little clarity on that. The Texas national guard has been putting up razor wire, concertina wire, to prevent access on the US side of the Rio Grande. This will force invaders to go to ports of entry. At ports of entry, the US government is still just letting them in and sending them out into the country, but at least there’s a process happening there. At other places, there’s no tracking. And there’s also the risk of death for the invaders. A number of them have drowned in the river, which would have been totally avoided by going to a port of entry.
The Biden administration’s border agents had been going in
and cutting the razor wire—to give access to invaders. Texas filed an
injunction to stop them, which was granted by Justice Alito on December 19,
2023. The federal government appealed, asking that the injunction be removed.
It’s obvious that removing barriers to allow access is not
securing the border, which the US government is required by law to do—one of
the few enumerated powers granted to the federal government, and they go out of
their way to not do it, and to thwart anyone who tries to do it on their
own.
The SCOTUS ruling, which is pretty wrongheaded, only removed the injunction. In other words, it
said the administration could carry out its policies at the border as it sees
fit. Let me reword that: the federal government is allowed to determine its
methods for securing the border and protecting American sovereignty. However, removing
barriers and encouraging invasion cannot be construed as securing the border.
Texas has a right to secure borders. So, in essence, the ruling allows the
federal border agents to do their actual job; it does not stop Texas from doing
that job when they fail to.
The SCOTUS ruling did not say that Texas had to allow the
federal border agents to come in and remove borders that Texas had set up.
There is not, to date, an injunction against any actions by Texas. There are
complaints from the feds that Texas ought to let them go in and remove the
barriers, without any hindrance.
But why should we?
When the states grant powers to the US government, they have
to have those powers in order to grant them. They do not lose the right
to self-protection by “hiring” the federal government to carry out that duty.
That is what Governor Abbott has spelled out so nicely in his letter.
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| 25 states stand with Texas in its right to self-protection, image found here |
This is the kind of standoff that the brink of war might look
like. I don’t want war to happen. I can’t even envision that happening. As of today we have a majority of states, 25, standing with Texas (all the states
with Republican governors except Vermont). Really, how could a commander-in-chief rally troops to kill their fellow
citizens—so that the federal government could tear down our borders and invite
invaders in? How can they spin that? I’m sure they could find a mendacious way
to spin it, but I don’t think it will fly—any more than using SWAT teams to
arrest “dangerous domestic terrorists” who are actually peaceful, country-loving
grandmas. Good people know that is just wrong.
President Trump suggested that the supporting governors should send some of their own state National Guard troops to Texas to add support. That’s probably a good idea. It has been done before, at times when there were particular crisis points; I think at least Oklahoma and Florida had done so.
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| President Trump suggests supporting states send guard troops to Texas, screenshot from here |
National Guard troops are under the command of their various
state governors—unless and until the President calls them into action. Anti-American,
anti-Texan, Democrat “heroes” Joaquin Castro and Beto O’Rourke are of course
calling for the President to federalize the Texas National Guard. The claim is
that Governor Abbott is using the Texas National Guard to defy a Supreme Court
ruling. But, as we went through above, Texas has no requirement to defy. The
ruling only said the feds could be allowed to do their job. Governor Abbott
correctly identifies the feds as not doing their job, and so Texas will do it.
Until there is a Supreme Court ruling saying Texas cannot
put up razor wire on its border or otherwise act to protect its border, Texas
can and will continue its self-protection. No such ruling is imminent. And if
it were to come, Texas—and those other supporting states—would be within their
constitutional rights to defy that order and protect themselves anyway. I think
Governor Abbott explained that pretty clearly, citing the portions of the US
Constitution at issue.
Texas has the “Come and take it” flag, from the Battle of Gonzales, daring the enemy Santa Anna to retrieve a cannon they’d borrowed four years earlier.
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| A replica of the infamous "Come and Take It" flag from the Battle of Gonzales hangs in the state capitol in Austin, Texas, image from the Houston Chronicle. |
There is less conflict between federal border patrol and Texas DPS and National Guard than you might think. There is a particular park the feds are not being allowed into, near Eagle Pass, because they were doing harm to the border. But they can do their business everywhere else. They are not harmed or hindered. They’re stirring up conflict. It’s just that the administration doesn’t want Texas interfering with its plan to destroy America by erasing the southern border and letting our enemies pour in.
Additional
Resources
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“Republican governors DRAW THE LINE on Biden’s border invasion” Glenn Beck, January 25, 2024.
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“26 States REBEL Against Biden Administration,” Facts
Matter with Roman Balmakov, January 26, 2024.
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“Civil War Echoes: Unpacking Governor Abbott's
Defiance in the Texas Border Clash” The Patriot Nurse, January 25, 2024.
· “The Secret Network Helping Biden Fuel the Border Invasion | Ep 329” Glenn Beck, January 24, 2024. (This video includes the interview with Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.)
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“Texas Declares INVASION and REJECTS Federal
Government's Border Authority” Robert Gouveia, January 25, 2024.
· “‘Installing MORE BARRIERS’: Texas SLAMS SCOTUS razor wire ruling” Glenn Beck, January 24, 2024.
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“Biden should know better than to start a fight with Texas” by Don Huffines, in The Telegraph, January 26, 2024.
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“What Happens if Joe Biden Tries to Take OverTexas National Guard?” by Ewan Palmer, Newsweek, January 26, 2024.
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