Photo: Alamy
Multiple Texas counties declared Tuesday that the illegal immigration crisis at the southern border amounts to an “invasion” and called on Gov. Greg Abbott to do the same.
Speaking at a closed press conference in Brackettville, Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, said, “Why we’re here is that these individuals have the courage to stand up and say it formally, to formally declare what is true – that we are being invaded.”
Adding that the federal government “refuses to enforce the laws of the United States,” Roy said that the best path forward would be for Texas, as a state, to declare an invasion and work to secure and protect its communities first.
The press conference, which was livestreamed by KSAT, included remarks from sheriffs, judges, and other officials from Kinney, Uvalde, Goliad, and Terrell counties, among others.
According to Roy, the authority for the declaration is rooted in Article IV, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution, which 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.”
Additionally, Article I, Section 10 prohibits individual states from declaring war “unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.”
The declaration comes on the heels of the Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling last week allowing the Biden administration to end President Donald Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy, formally known as the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), which requires migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. to stay in Mexico for the duration of their immigration proceedings.
According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Customs and Border Protection has recorded more than 1.7 million migrant encounters along the southern border this fiscal year, including more than 239,000 in May.
Citing the Constitution and the Biden administration’s neglect, former DHS Acting Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli said Gov. Abbott has the authority to declare an invasion in the state of Texas.
“If we assume the Biden administration is going to stay on the course it has chosen – which no group of Americans supports – then that leaves it to the state of Texas and the other border states to utilize the authority inherent in their governors to declare an invasion,” he said.
