Can Texas declare a border 'invasion' and return migrants to Mexico?
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is facing mounting pressure from far-right and former Trump administration officials to immediately declare a migrant “invasion” at the U.S.-Mexico border, under a constitutional provision that would allow local law enforcement and National Guard troops to stop migrants at the border and send them back to Mexico.
The federal government is responsible for enforcement of immigration laws. But a pandemic rule that has blocked more than 1.7 million migrants attempting to enter the U.S. — Title 42 — is scheduled to be lifted May 23 by the Biden administration.
Abbott and other officials have said that could cause a spike in migration, with up to 18,000 migrants arriving at the border daily. Already the number of migrants at the southern border increased 33% last month from February to 221,303, according to figures released Monday by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. That's 28% more migrants arriving than March 2021. Several thousand migrants are waiting to claim asylum in camps just across the border from Texas' Rio Grande Valley.
Former Trump officials at the Center for Renewing America, a conservative think tank based in Washington, are pushing Republican governors in border states to act soon to prevent those migrants from entering the U.S. and to deter others from making the journey. Officials have reached out to Arizona and Texas leaders, arguing that under the Constitution’s “invasion clause” and “states self-defense clause,” states are entitled to define what they consider an invasion and defend themselves by expelling migrants.
Arizona Atty. Gen. Mark Brnovich, a Republican running for U.S. Senate, released a legal opinion supporting the plan this year, arguing, "The violence and lawlessness at the border caused by transnational cartels and gangs satisfies the definition of an ‘invasion’ under the U.S. Constitution, and Arizona therefore has the power to defend itself." Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey has demurred, stressing steps he's already taken to secure the border. On Tuesday, he announced a "border strike force" agreement with 25 fellow Republican governors, including Abbott, to combat cartels and other border crime. Texas leaders also have yet to respond publicly to the plan, but local officials say they’re considering it.
“The Trump administration was actually trying to protect the state against the invasion, while the Biden administration has made it worse,” said Ken Cuccinelli, a former Homeland Security official under Trump, now a senior fellow at the Center for Renewing America and one of the plan’s main proponents.
It wouldn’t be the first time states used the invasion clause to confront the federal government over immigration. In the mid-1990s, half a dozen states, including Arizona, California and Texas, sued the federal government alleging its failure to stop illegal immigration violated the invasion clause. But federal courts rejected the claims, ruling they were “political questions.”
Simply because the courts didn’t decide the issue doesn’t mean a governor has the power to declare a migrant invasion and start enforcing federal immigration law, said Emily Berman, an associate professor who teaches constitutional law at the University of Houston.
“There’s nothing that gives the governor authority to ‘invoke’ the ‘invasion clause,’ ” Berman said. “It would be a stretch to think that it was up to a governor to unilaterally determine the existence of an invasion.… Even a common-sense interpretation of the word ‘invasion’ does not describe what is happening. Russian tanks are not rolling over the border. That’s what an invasion looks like.”
Texas Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton and Abbott did not respond to requests for comment about the plan this week.
Don McLaughlin, mayor of the south Texas city of Uvalde, said he’s been in regular contact with Abbott's and Paxton’s offices and believes that in coming days, the governor will invoke the invasion clause.
“I have a sneaking suspicion maybe we'll see that within the next week or 10 days,” McLaughlin said last week, based on “conversations I've had with different people that he's going to invoke that clause.”
McLaughlin, who is nonpartisan but “leans Republican,” said he supports using the invasion clause because, “It’s going to give us more powers as citizens and law enforcement in our own state."
He said migrants have been increasingly breaking into local ranches, damaging fences and prompting high-speed chases.
“I think we're all going to be forced to make a stand. In Texas, I think that's coming,” he said. “We are going to enforce the law, even if the federal government won't.”
Invoking the invasion clause would be most significant in Texas, the busiest stretch of the border for illegal crossings for years. Abbott — a former Texas attorney general running for a third term as governor — has stepped up border security in recent weeks and promised at border briefings to take “unprecedented actions.”
At a briefing in the Rio Grande Valley last week, Abbott faulted the Biden administration’s plan to lift Title 42 and said, “It has left Texas to come up with strategies to secure our border.”
“We are going to do what is necessary to ensure we have safe and secure borders,” he said.
During the last year, Abbott has taken increasingly dramatic and costly steps to show he’s tough on border security. He erected a state-funded border fence and launched Operation Lone Star, deploying more than 10,000 state troopers and guard troops to arrest and jail about 3,500 migrants on state trespassing charges at a cost of about $2 billion. This month, Abbott bused migrants to Washington and increased security checks on traffic at the border, prompting massive delays.
But right-wing critics — including challengers Abbott faced in a competitive primary last month — insist he hasn’t done enough to stop the flow of migrants to Texas.
“Operation Lone Star — that sounds so cool, but it doesn’t stop anything. They’re just looking busy,” said Cuccinelli, a former Virginia attorney general who unsuccessfully ran for governor there in 2013, calling the operation “window dressing.”
“There is zero evidence it has done anything to slow the flow across the border” of migrants, he said. “Until you are returning people into Mexico reliably and regularly, you will not slow the flow.”
Expelling migrants from Texas and Arizona would probably send them toward New Mexico and California, pressuring Democratic governors in those states to act too, Cuccinelli said. But he said Abbott needs to act soon to prevent migrants from making the journey, which often takes weeks.
“You have to be delivering deterrence messaging weeks before. The only deterrence that works is some commitment to stopping people from entering the country,” he said.
For Abbott, showing he’s willing to go further than other governors on border security could help him win reelection by the large margin he needs if he wants to run for president in 2024, said Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University in Houston. But it also risks providing ammunition to Abbott’s opponent, former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke, a Democrat who would probably attack the policy as racist.
“The more you push the envelope, the more you run the risk of Democrats using your policies to turn out more Latinos, particularly younger Latinos, in November,” Jones said.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas and other groups have requested the Justice Department investigate Operation Lone Star since December but have received no response, said Kate Huddleston, a staff attorney with the group. She called the Arizona attorney general’s opinion in support of invoking the invasion clause “outrageous" and “beyond the pale.”
“The administration has repeatedly acted in a racist and anti-immigrant way in order to score political points,” Huddleston said of Abbott. “It would be a very dangerous step for Texas to go down this path.”
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times .
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“The administration has repeatedly acted in a racist and anti-immigrant way in order to score political points,
Hey Huddleston - how 'bout reading the U. S. Constitution.
Article II, Section 8 - The Congress shall have Power ...To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization . . . .To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions; . . . . . and To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers
Nope - don't see anything racist nor anti-immigrant listed there. Only thing I see is where Congress is in charge of regulating and ENFORCING our immigration policies - which this administration has decided isn't important enough to comply with.
220,000 in March according to the latest numbers.................SMMFH and it's only going to get worse as we get closer to the ill advised repeal of Title 42.
Got to keep them lib Democrat voter rolls up. Lord knows they are losing enough from already existing rolls that have left the party./sarc
What immigration policy do you claim 'this administration' is failing to comply with 1st?
Which one do you want Dulay?
Take your pick -
Short answer? ALL. OF. IT.
So even the ones that were repealed?
Seriously 1st, that's a ridiculous reply.
Just admit you have no fucking clue and move on.
Then the CBP is lying about the statistics they released. Heads should roll...
Wash out your mouth and get some visine since we've had this discussion way too many times in the past.
You wanna argue??????? My recommendation would be for you to start your own thread/seed/article since I haven't seen you "discuss" any topic posted on the FP.
Yep, Biden and his minions are dead set on creating new immigration legislation, but refuse to enforce the laws already in existence.
Didn't say that. I said this administration is failing at all levels to secure the border. CBP, just like every other state's border patrol have been restricted in operations by the federal government (the Biden Administration).
You sure as hell did.
I asked a simple question Jeremy:
You replied:
You CAPITALIZED ALL. OF. IT.
That is demonstrably FALSE Jeremy.
ALL. OF. IT. means ALL of the US immigration policy Jeremy.
That means that the CBP statistics on immigration enforcement have to be fabricated because you insist that the Biden administration isn't letting CBP enforce immigration policy.
First of all Jeremy, WTF do you mean by 'other state's border patrol'? The only interstate 'border patrol' I am aware of is operated by the California Ag Dept. to prohibit specific plants and animals.
Secondly, the CBP is an Agency the Federal government's Executive branch, which sets the policy for their operations. I doubt that ANY state would desire an armed Federal Agency acting within its border without restriction.
Thirdly, please cite the CBP 'restrictions in operations' enacted by the Biden administration. Link?
Finally, you and yours CHEERED what was a true humanitarian crisis on the border: the Trump/Sessions 'Child Separation' policy. There were countless seeds here supporting that Unconstitutional policy. So, it's pretty fucking hypocritical to pretend like y'all give a shit about enforcing immigration law.
HOLY SHIT!!! Can you fabricate any more bullshit? You go all of that from one statement. That's some serious conspiracy theory shit you're running there.
Do you not understand English? You think Texas is the only border state in the US?
And yet you don't see the problem in that statement. The FEDERAL government is the problem.
Never cheered it. Supported enforcing existing law. But coming from a member of the group that want's to do away with the law, I can see wehre you went [DELETED] and thought I cheered it.
Oh, and the "Trump/Sessions 'Child Separation' policy"? You have a pretty narrow timeline you like to work with. Do you not remember that it all had been going on under virtually EVERY President? You don't remember the "Trump Child Separation Photos" were discovered to be taken during the Obama administration? But lets focus on only the past 5 years because "TRRUUUMMMPPPP". Pathetic.
Please block quote the part of my comment that you think is fabricated Jeremy.
It quite evident that I do Jeremy.
No, Jeremy, why do you ask?
You stated:
In English grammar, the 's suffix forms a possessive. Since I DO indeed understand English quite well, I read your statement to mean that US states [note that the s at the end of states means 'more than one'] POSSESS their own border patrol.
Thanks for playing.
Yet my statement is truthful and factual, yours is an opinion.
Still waiting for you to cite the fabrication you allege that I posted.
Oh, my bad for not splitting hairs finely enough for you...
What part of Unconstitutional didn't you grasp Jeremy?
I'll just leave that right here and encourage members to recognize the hypocrisy of those 2 sentences.
BTFW, the only thing I am trying to retard is the flow of BS here on NT.
To wit:
I don't remember it because your statement is false Jeremy. That bullshit was debunked long ago. Try to keep up.
Ask yourself this Jeremy: If it was going on all along, WHY did Trump/Sessions have to put up tent detention centers to house separated children?
[Jeopardy music]
Is it your posit that EVERY other President built detention centers for adults but ignored the need for detention centers for the thousands of children they separated from their families EVERY fucking year Jeremy?
Your posit lacks all credulity Jeremy, or to put it as you would, it's fabricated bullshit.
Calling something racist trumps anything written in the constitution. Just like labeling something disinformation trumps anything written in the first amendment.
What a world the left loons are trying to create for us
If it's an invasion , then the Texas Rangers should be able to shoot the migrants on sight. No?
The Biden/Harris Administration has created a mess on the border, and obviously have no plans to control it ever.
I am sure many Democrats, especially in border states, are just thrilled to be associated with the Administration's policies regarding immigration.
The baseball team or the state investigative division?
Both, and anyone else in Texas that owns a gun, which is probably about 99 percent of them. And when they are done stopping the invasion from the south maybe they could work on the invasion from all the liberals in California moving to Texas and bringing with them the same policy mindset that is causing them to vacate California in the first place.
Got the same problem here. A little bit from California but the majority here are from New York and Maryland with some New Jersey lumped in.
Hard to understand why someone would leave a toilet and then miss it so much they want to turn where they go to into a similar toilet. They must miss the smell of shit.
Leave the baseball team alone
Based on their record, they couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with a ball AND bat (2/8, .200%).
Something must be done to stop foreigners form coming here
Kick them all out except for the Native Americans.....
Hey Hey now... my family came from Norway. You kick us out, where you gonna get your fix of that delicacy Lutefisk?
So who gets to decide what a Native American is exactly?
If you are using Elizabeth Warren standards, then no one is going anywhere. In fact the US might have to take over Mexico, Central & South America, and Canada to have enough room for all the newly acquired Native Americans.
If you are using belonging to a Native American tribe. Well that can be a sticky thing; as tribes set their own rules- and membership can be a tricky proposition regardless of DNA.
l
If you go by DNA strictly; then what percentage do you need to remain? You will piss off a lot of Native Americans that are members of tribes by telling them their DNA isn't pure enough.
How about Brandon just enforce our borders and immigration laws to the letter? That way we can avoid all of this dumbassery.
Spent two weeks in Norway. Stavanger, Oslo and Kristiansand. Discovered Lakka there. On my last bottle now.
Harvard's first woman of color has high Native American cooking standards as evidenced in the recipe book she helped with, Pow Wow Chow: A Collection of Recipes from Families of the Five Civilized Tribes. The family favorite native recipes that she shared include: Cold Omelets with Crab Meat, Crab with Tomato Mayonnaise Dressing, Herbed Tomatoes, Oriental Beef Stir-Fry and Mexican Oatmeal Soup. Until I read this, I was ignorant of the widespread use of Crab, mayonnaise and oatmeal. The Oriental Beef Stir-Fry provides further evidence that our Native Americans traveled here from Asia.
Anyone that can make good Lutefisk can stay. That work for you?
Really? That's the best you can come up with?
I guess you missed the articles that showed her taking a DNA test, and it coming back as positive for Native American ancestry. You know, the one where Trump bet her 2 million that she couldn't prove she was Native American, then refused to pay up when she did?
Nope, I feel DNA testing should handle all the proof necessary.
Shouldn't any Native American DNA be enough? But that would remain up to the Native American governing body.
Excellent, I am glad you are admitting that stating that every non-American being kicked out, or blocked from entry, is "dumbassery".
Damn, I'm gone. There's no such thing as good Lutefisk.. anybody who says there is is just fucking crazy!!!!! hehe
man I hate that shit... loved the rest of those Lutheran Church dinners when I was growing up in WI... but could not get to like lutefisk... maybe my family came from southern Norway....
6-10 generations ago FFS and it was only $1million.
You need to learn how to use the "/S" tag. NA members on NT like "specific" information - not "off-the-cuff" info.
Now, THAT certainly sounds like a totally unhinged, idiotic plan!
Lol.. A test performed by her own expert showed she has much Indian DNA as as the average American of European descent.
So by the Warren Standard, the average white person can call themselves native American on job and school applications.
You realize that DNA test made her look so bad she deleted the tweet about it, right? It literally proved the conservative criticism of her.
u know, the one where Trump bet her 2 million that she couldn't prove she was Native American, then refused to pay up when she did?
So grow up as a WASP and have a possible tiny amount of NA ancestry and suddenly you too are a full fledged "native American!" Suddenly, there are tens of millions more native Americans than there were yesterday.
So now you admit she had Native American lineage, AND that Trump is a loser and cheater that reneged on his bet.
You see how easy it is to tell the truth when you look up the facts?
BTW, I knew it was just 1 million, just wanted to set a trap for you to jump in head first. Your proving my 2 million wrong just proved your entire Elizabeth Warren claim as wrong.
Then you better have a talk with Charger, since it was his plan.
BTW bullshit. You weren't talking to me when you posted it. That is a borderline lie. And you got fucking caught. And in the range of 1/64 to 1/1024? BFD that ought to get her about $.35 a year from casino income. To use that as "justification" for any fucking thing is ludicrous. But not unlike some people
no, it was your comment.
own it.
hey, using that "logic", most of us can be classified as white or black, depending on how we identify that day!
You can be a woman, a man, black white or Indian depending on the time of day. You can switch at lunch and then back again at dinner.
We keep our citizens
NA members on NT like "specific" information - not "off-the-cuff" info.
Should I have copied and pasted the recipes?
Warren is not any part of "humor" to me nor to many other NA's on NT.
Not a joking matter.
Sorry, but I have to laugh at her cookbook, from the cringe worthy book title to passing along a recipe crab recipe with Tomato Mayonnaise Dressing as a Cherokee dish. Where was the bean bread or Kanuchi or fried cornmeal squash bread or wild onion with eggs instead of Oriental Beef Stir-Fry?
That's why, previously, I "suggested" using the "/S" tag.
You are correct, I was addressing it to you. So you, in your eagerness to correct me, proved Ronin was completely wrong. Which works just as well.
No, no you weren't. You addressed it to Ronin and I happened to read it and respond. Plan your ass hahahaHAHAHAHAHAHA
I would have preferred Ronin to have responded, but apparently HE WAS TOO SMART to fall for it. Fortunately for me, you butted into the conversation to fall for it, for him.
Then why in the hell did you just post this??????????
Soooo which is it? And I fell for nothing. She is barely NA according to the DNA test bottom line. Is there a *beep*, *beep*, *beep* sound when you walk back your mistakes without admitting and just going forward?
Should have read "I was not addressing it to you".
Unfortunately, I have a lot of typos when only using my thumbs. This wasn't the 1st, and won't be the last.
*beep* *beep* *beep* Walk it back...............there is edit time.
I'd rather admit to my typing mistake and move onward, than secretly try to change it and claim never to have made it.
Close all the International Airports?
Yeah, gotta keep them foreigners out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Since Liberals are so hot to let anyone in the country maybe they would be able to set up a trade. For every illegal in the country we send a liberal out of the country. I hear Russia is looking for some new comrades, and they will even give you a job that travels to other countries
No, that is where those that come for a vist should go to leave and where those that stayed too long should be taken to for their flight back to where they belong
Opening the borders doesn't work?
Just the cartel drug pushers, rapists, sex and kid traffickers, disease carriers, and assorted criminal trash
Most of the fentanyl that's killing so many people comes across the border
Yet you know damn well that we don't have a policy to pursue those that overstay their visas. They FAR outnumber those that successfully cross the southern border every year.
Yep, especially the feral ones as well!
EXACTLY! THANK YOU!
Are those the foreigners that charger referred to regarding 'gotta keep those foreigners out'?
You all know I was referring to chargers' remark about the need to keep those foreigners out of the US.
So the ones overstaying their visas DIDN'T cross the border then? Interesting theory.............Won't hold water but interesting nonetheless
Incorrect Dulay -
H.R.90 — 117th Congress (2021-2022)
Visa Overstay Enforcement Act of 2021
This bill imposes various penalties on aliens who overstay a visa or lawful immigration status. An alien who overstays shall be fined or imprisoned for up to six months, or both. Such an individual may not be admitted into the United States for 5 years, and may not be granted a visa for 10 years. For subsequent offenses, the alien shall be fined or imprisoned for up to two years, or both, and shall not be admitted into the United States or granted a visa.
The Department of Homeland Security shall make case-by-case exceptions for aliens who overstay due to medical necessity, public safety, or national security reasons.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/90?s=1&r=5#:~:text=An%20alien%20who%20overstays%20shall,a%20visa%20for%2010%20years.
Please explain why you think that posting a link to a bill, which hasn't even passed the House, much less become law, proves me wrong 1st?
And you really don't think that the actions listed in the HR are not taking place??
Naive - very naive thinking.
Your post insists that my comment was incorrect 1st. It isn't. Your above comment doesn't address the FACT that 'we don't have a policy to pursue those that overstay their visas'.
In FACT, if you had bothered to read HR 90, maybe you'd realize that it doesn't say anything about pursuing those that overstay their visas.
You must have missed the word 'southern' in my comment.
Only the illegal ones. I have no problems with the ones who do things the right and legal way. But the hard core liberal left make zero distinction between the legal and illegal. We've seen that proved time and again since Biden took office.
So I take it we are going to hear about the border endlessly, until the elections.
Then we will still hear about it. The republicans will throw up some bullshit legislation that they know won't pass. Tell the people that see, they tried to work on it and the Dems refuse. They will continue to use it as a political football to try to win the presidency.
Then if successful they will enact some draconian laws that will still never stop all crossings from the border. They will point at any statistics that prove the are right. Complain that the Dems want an invasion, etc.
Meanwhile no sensible approach will be taken.
To think that a hundred year old problem could be fixed by some kind of legislation and the problem will magically be solved is living in a dream land.
I know the responce will probably be well, if it slows the traffic, that is a win.
Meanwhile the problem is still there that the republicans will just use the next election cycle.
[deleted]
I don't believe either party wants to solve the border issue and immigration. It's a useful hammer they can use to hit the other side with to make themselves look better. So long as party matters more to them and country this will never be resolved and I believe they are fine with that. They (politicians for those among us who have trouble figuring out who "they" are) really don't care about the American public outside of the votes and money we give them.
Sometimes I wish people would leave both parties and stop giving them so much power.
So true. SSDD when it comes to that
“..,the problem is still there that the republicans will just use the next election cycle.”
Just another go to wedge issue. They have neither the will nor desire to address the problem as it is an easy point to drive home to their base.
Neither do the Dems/Libs as they are the ones who started us down this road in 1986.
Shutting down - too much angst in responses.
Thanks for commenting.
Have a Great day.