The country is blowing up over Texas asserting its right to defend itself and the focus this week has been on Texas Governor Greg Abbott's use of the National Guard to secure portions of the border with razor wire.
Some officials, mainly Democrats, have muddied the waters further by making claims that Texas is defying the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) order. Some have even gone beyond that, claiming President Biden needs to take federal control of the Texas National Guard.
The links to these tweets are below:
https://twitter.com/BetoORourke/status/1750283034799026532
https://twitter.com/JoaquinCastrotx/status/1749917713864982734
https://twitter.com/RepCasar/thread/1750262337049632968
So what’s the deal?
The U.S. Supreme Court’s order has created confusion with headlines claiming it was a win for Biden. It wasn’t - Not really.
On Jan. 22, the SCOTUS issued its order and the justices were closely split; 5-4 with Chief Justice John Roberts along with Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, Barrett, and Jackson in the majority.
The SCOTUS order is unsigned and is quite brief:
The application to vacate injunction presented to Justice Alito and by him referred to the Court is granted. The December 19, 2023 order of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, case No. 23-50869, is vacated.
Justice Thomas, Justice Alito, Justice Gorsuch, and Justice Kavanaugh would deny the application to vacate injunction.
What the order essentially does is reverse a federal appeals court ruling that blocked Customs and Border Patrol agents from cutting or dismantling razor wire erected on the Texas border except in the case of medical emergencies.
The SCOTUS order does not say Texas can't put more wire right back up in its place. It does not say Texas is acting illegally.
Even so, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton responded in a statement that Texas would appeal.
“The Supreme Court’s temporary order allows Biden to continue his illegal effort to aid the foreign invasion of America,” Paxton said. “The destruction of Texas’s border barriers will not help enforce the law or keep American citizens safe. This fight is not over, and I look forward to defending our state’s sovereignty.”
"Although the Supreme Court has permitted the continued destruction of Texas’s border security measures, this appeal remains ongoing, and the Office of the Attorney General will argue the case in front of the Fifth Circuit on February 7," Paxton said.
Following the order, Abbott pushed back on X in a post on Jan. 24.
Abbott issued a statement outlining that the federal government has “broken the compact between the United States and the States” and that Biden has violated his oath of office in failing to enforce border laws. The conclusion of the letter, seen below, details specific Constitutional failings by the Biden administration under Article I, § 10, Clause 3.
Read more about Abbott’s border plan, Operation Lone Star.
The same day as Abbot pushed back with his statement, Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) had sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas about a new CBO report that showed an estimated 860,000 "gotwaways," who are illegal immigrants who evade Border Patrol agents, occurred during the fiscal year 2023.
These “gotaways” outnumber the combined populations of Kansas City and St. Louis, the two largest cities in Missouri," Hawley wrote. "At the very least, you owe the American people full transparency into what your Department knows about illegal immigrants who have entered our nation without being stopped or tracked."
A Congressional oversight report laid out the vast number of illegal migrants during the Biden administration
A record 4,854,663 illegal crossers were encountered by border patrol during 2022 and 2023. The breakdown of those two years includes 2,378,994 encounters were recorded for FY 2022 and 2,475,669 in FY 2023.
For comparison, between FY 2000-2019, encounters surpassed one million just five times. The highest count was in 2020 with 1,643,679 - not including the estimated number of those who evaded border patrol, sometimes referred to as “gotaways.”
Paxton has continued to press Texas’ right to defense, fighting with Biden agencies over the Shelby Park region of Eagle Pass.
In the letter dated Jan. 26, Paxton responded to another round of demands and complaints by Biden's Department of Homeland Security (DHS) about Texas taking over Shelby Park. In the letter, Paxton disabuses DHS of the notion that a woman and child who drowned in the area while trying to illegally cross into the country were due to Texas' actions.
"Again, let’s start with the facts. As I have already explained, U.S. Border Patrol withdrew from Shelby Park last year and deliberately reduced its ability to respond to medical emergencies in the vicinity," Paxton wrote. "The tragic incident on January 12, 2024, that you once tried to pin on Texas had already occurred well before your agency’s officers arrived at the Shelby Park gate—conspicuously lacking any equipment to perform an emergency rescue. And the supposed “Memorandum of Agreement” between U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the City of Eagle Pass from 2015 (2015 MOA) was never approved by Texas as required under the State’s constitution."
Paxton questions DHS' new claim that the Shelby Park area is now somehow federal land when the agency had previously claimed Shelby Park is "municipal land owned by the City of Eagle Pass,” not the United States.
Overall the letter denied DHS access to Shelby Park and gave DHS a list of Texas' demands.
“By February 15, DHS must supply the official plat maps and deeds demonstrating the precise parcels to which they claim ownership, an explanation of how Texas is preventing access to those specific parcels, documentation showing that Eagle Pass or Texas ever granted permission for DHS to erect infrastructure that interferes with border security, and proof of Congress empowering DHS to turn a Texas park into an unofficial and illegal port of entry. If the federal government is going to make such claims, it must provide proof," Paxton's press release for the letter states.
Biden responded with a statement of his own, saying "For too long, we all know the border’s been broken. It’s long past time to fix it."
Yet, the President goes on to say he started fixing the issue only "two months ago" before blaming Congress for a lack of funding. Read Biden's statement here.
Biden's statement is similar to remarks he made to FOX News reporter Jacqui Heinrich on Jan. 21 when she questioned him on whether or not he thinks the border is secure. He told her no and complained about money.
"No, it’s not," Biden told Heinrich. "I haven’t believed it for the last 10 years. And I’ve said it for the last 10 years…give me the money. No, I’ve…I’ve asked for thousands more, of everything – from judges to…anyway...." Watch the clip of that interaction here.
Biden's statement to Heinrich and his Jan. 26 statement ignores how his policies created the situation in the first place as documented in a lengthy list that was compiled by House Speaker Mike Johnson on Jan. 9.
Johnson's list includes 64 separate incidents since Biden took office in January 2021 in which the President weakened border security and facilitated millions of illegal immigrants being released into the interior of the US.
Biden is not the only president facilitating the ushering in of illegal migrants. Former Presidents Bush, Clinton, and Obama are behind a nongovernmental organization (NGO) called "Miles4Migrants" that is literally flying migrants to destinations across the country.
It's worth noting that Biden and his administration have been at odds on their border talking points.
In his 2022 State of The Union address, Biden said "We need to secure the border and fix the immigration system. 'It’s not only the right thing to do — it’s the economically smart thing to do."
Later that fall, the Washington Free Beacon documented 17 times the Biden administration claimed the border was secure or closed:
More To the Story
Texas is not standing alone in its attempt to stem the invasion of its border. Support has been growing in over half the nation's states.
On Jan. 25, the Republican Governors Association quickly came out with a statement signed by 25 governors backing Abbott and Texas's Constitutional Right to defend itself. The full text of the statement:
“President Biden and his Administration have left Americans and our country completely vulnerable to unprecedented illegal immigration pouring across the Southern border. Instead of upholding the rule of law and securing the border, the Biden Administration has attacked and sued Texas for stepping up to protect American citizens from historic levels of illegal immigrants, deadly drugs like fentanyl, and terrorists entering our country.
“We stand in solidarity with our fellow Governor, Greg Abbott, and the State of Texas in utilizing every tool and strategy, including razor wire fences, to secure the border. We do it in part because the Biden Administration is refusing to enforce immigration laws already on the books and is illegally allowing mass parole across America of migrants who entered our country illegally.
“The authors of the U.S. Constitution made clear that in times like this, states have a right of self-defense, under Article 4, Section 4 and Article 1, Section 10, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution. Because the Biden Administration has abdicated its constitutional compact duties to the states, Texas has every legal justification to protect the sovereignty of our states and our nation.”
North Carolina's legislature is also standing behind Abbott and Texas.
On Jan. 26, House Speaker Tim Moore (R-Kings Mountain) posted to X, "I am proud to #standwithtexas, and the NC House will do all it can to assist Governor Abbott and the state of Texas. #ncpol #bordercrisis"
Later that same day, Senate Republicans announced that they had sent a letter to President Biden "regarding his obstruction of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s ability to guard the southern border."
Here's the text of the Senate Republicans letter:
“Since taking office, your policies and derelict leadership have left border states helpless in securing the southern border. Your failures have resulted in a full-scale emergency, with states like Texas having no choice but to fend for themselves. Instead of offering assistance to our southern border states, your administration has gone out of its way to obstruct efforts by Texas to guard illegal points of entry.
“As elected officials in the North Carolina Senate, we know firsthand the consequences of your failure to secure the border. We wrote to Secretary Mayorkas last April highlighting the surge in drug overdoses in North Carolina caused by your open-border policies, and we asked for action. Since then, the situation has only gotten worse. Clearly, our call went unanswered.
“We are writing to call on your administration to stop thwarting Texas from effectively guarding the southern border. The United States is facing a national security crisis with real threats of crime, drug trafficking, and terrorism. North Carolina stands with Texas and it’s time your administration stops impeding Gov. Greg Abbott from protecting his state and our nation.”
A copy of the letter can be accessed here.
North Carolina Democratic Governor Roy Cooper essentially blamed former President Trump and Republicans for Biden's border crisis in a statement to CBS 17.
“A bipartisan Senate is close to the strongest border security law in a generation but Donald Trump is telling Republicans to stop because a tough border law hurts his campaign," Cooper told the outlet. "If Republican Governors really wanted strong border security now they would release a joint statement supporting this legislation instead of one that bows to Trump and urges violating the constitution and the rule of law.”
Moore was unamused by the governor's statement, calling it “a series of out-of-touch talking points.”
NC Attorney General Josh Stein, who is seeking to replace Cooper as governor in this year's election, has been silent so far.
As this post went out, Republicans in the U.S. House have issued articles of impeachment for Biden’s DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Similarly, will there be a border deal in the coming days? FOX’s Bill Melugin has some details.