Texas Gov. Greg Abbott blasted President Biden on Monday, telling him to either find a way to secure the border or get out of the way of states that want to do it themselves.
The Republican governor teed up a monumental legal fight, saying the Constitution grants him independent powers to deploy his military and resources to stop an “invasion.” And that’s what he said is taking place at the border.
And Mr. Abbott said Mr. Biden bears blame for growing numbers of migrants drowning in the Rio Grande as they try to reach the U.S. illegally, saying the president’s policies are enticing the migrants to attempt to make the dangerous crossing.
“Nobody drowns on a bridge,” the governor said. “It has been on your watch that migrants have suffered an unprecedented crisis of humanity.”
Mr. Abbott’s stern language is the latest in an escalating battle over how far his state can go to try to deter illegal crossings.
The current flashpoint is Texas’ deployment of buoys in the Rio Grande — a floating border wall — to try to deter migrants from swimming or rafting over near Eagle Pass, Texas.
The Justice Department late last week threatened to sue if the barrier isn’t taken down, calling it a safety risk that “presents humanitarian concerns.”
Mr. Abbott brushed aside that threat, saying he is acting under the Constitution’s powers allowing states to fend off an invasion if the feds won’t act.
The invasion theory, as it’s known, has never been fully tested in the courts, but it has been percolating in conservative circles for several years. It relies on Article I, Section 10, which says states cannot unilaterally wage war “unless actually invaded.” Texas’ constitution, meanwhile, grants the governor the power as commander-in-chief of state forces to “repel invasions.”
Mr. Abbott said that justifies the steps he’s taken, including the water wall.
Critics have labeled the invasion theory several ways, including “racist” and a legal fiction.
Mr. Abbott and Mr. Biden have gone toe-to-toe over the border during the last 30 months, with the Texas governor scoring some big symbolic wins.
In particular, his campaign to bus migrants to Democrat-run cities — a move he said was to try to spread the pain of the record surge of migrants — enraged the administration and ensured the border crisis was front-page news in cities across the country.
Mr. Abbott’s Operation Lone Star has also deployed state personnel to arrest and prosecute immigrants who are in the country illegally, and has sought to erect its own border barriers. Those include traditional walls, miles of razor wire and, most controversially, the floating barrier, or water wall.
Texas newspapers reported last week on the concerns of one state trooper who said they were ordered to push migrants back into the Rio Grande, and to deny water to those who did make it across and were thirsty.
State authorities denied the allegations, but the governor’s opponents said they not only believed the account but said it was emblematic of the governor’s inhumane approach to the border.
“The country is now finally seeing where the spiral of dehumanization of migrants has led us,” said Mario Carrillo, a Texas-based operative for America’s Voice, an immigration advocacy group. “Gov. Abbott’s cruel and unconstitutional immigration enforcement machine is designed to harm migrants, and those of us in Texas have long called for an end to Operation Lone Star.”
The Justice Department, in its threat to sue over the water wall, said Texas was violating the Rivers and Harbors Act by erecting a structure in the water.
Mr. Abbott said that’s not what the buoy barriers are, so the law doesn’t apply.
But he said the issue is much bigger than that.
“The fact is, if you would just enforce the immigration laws Congress already has on the books, America would not be suffering from your record-breaking level of illegal immigration,” he said.
Nor, he said, would migrant deaths be rising.
He pointed to the U.N.’s declaration that the U.S.-Mexico border is the deadliest land crossing in the world. And he said “hundreds of migrants drowned in the Rio Grande” before Texas began what he characterized as the life-saving floating wall.
“To end the risk that migrants will be harmed crossing the border illegally, you must fully enforce the laws of the United States that prohibit illegal immigration between ports of entry,” he wrote. “In the meantime, Texas will fully utilize its constitutional authority to deal with the crisis you have caused.”
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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