Texas Governor Greg Abbott recently announced the invocation of the Invasion Clauses of the U.S. and Texas Constitutions, declaring the act of millions of illegal aliens crossing into Texas through the porous southern border an invasion.
The Governor states that he would "fully authorize Texas to take unprecedented measures to defend our state against an invasion." These measures include:
- Deploy the National Guard to safeguard the border, and to repel and turn back immigrants trying to cross the border illegally
- Deploy the Texas Dept. of Public Safety (DPS) to arrest and return immigrants to the border who crossed illegally, and to arrest illegal immigrants for criminal activity;
- Build a wall in multiple counties on the border;
- Deploy gun boats;
- Designate Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations;
- Enter into a compact with other states to secure the border;
- Enter into agreements with foreign powers to enhance border security;
- Provide resources for border counties to increase their efforts to respond to the "border invasion."
In July 2022, Abbott issued an executive order that directed Texas DPS to "apprehend illegal immigrants who illegally cross the border between ports of entry and return them to the border," but stopped short of calling the flood of aliens an invasion.
Texas has borne the brunt of record-setting back-to-back years of illegal immigration following policy changes made by the Biden Administration. Fiscal Year 2021 saw 1,734,686 illegal alien encounters at the southern border, and 2022 saw an additional 2,378,944 illegal alien crossings. Nearly two-thirds of migrant apprehensions occurred in the five Texas-based Border Patrol sectors.
For context, during the 2019 border surge under President Trump's administration Customs and Border Protection encountered only 977,509 illegal aliens at the southern border.
Article IV Section 4 of the United States Constitution states:
The United States shall guarantee to every State in this union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion; and on application of the legislature, or of the executive (when the legislature cannot be convened) against domestic violence.
And in the Texas Constitution, Article 4, Section 7 states:
GOVERNOR AS COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF MILITARY FORCES. He shall be Commander-in-Chief of the military forces of the State, except when they are called into actual service of the United States. He shall have power to call forth the militia to execute the laws of the State, to suppress insurrections, and to repel invasions.
Governor Abbott’s spokesperson Renae Eze told Breitbart in April:
Since President Biden took office over a year ago, his dangerous open border policies have created an ongoing crisis along our southern border, with a 61-year record-high of illegal immigrants surging into our state smuggled by the cartels, along with deadly drugs like fentanyl, weapons, and other contraband. Texas border communities and local officials are overwhelmed and overrun by the historic levels of illegal crossings, and President Biden has turned a blind eye to their suffering.
You can read more at Breitbart News.
