The Razor's Edge

Texas and the Biden regime battle over the US border

This is a brief, hastily written update on the situation at the US southern border with Mexico. As most of you already know, the surge in migration from south of the border has reached unprecedented levels. In December of last year, over 300,000 migrant encounters were recorded by the US Border Patrol. And that doesn't count the “gotaways.” A recent poll found that 70% of American voters object to how the Federal government is handling (or not handling) the border situation.

The Texas state government has tried to ameliorate the immediate, local impact by, for example, transporting approximately 100,000 migrants to other states of their choice in most cases. In particular, Texas has sent thousands of migrants to self-proclaimed “sanctuary cities” such as New York City, Washington, DC, Los Angeles, and Chicago. The sanctuary cities have fought against this process, and they have proclaimed this process to be illegal, and akin to kidnapping. Of course, these (liberal) cities are clamoring for monetary assistance from the Federal government.

Texas has also tried to install impediments to migrant passage into the state/country, such as floating buoys in the middle of the river and shipping containers arranged along the banks of the Rio Grande River that separates the US from Mexico. Last year, Texas installed razor wire (barbed wire) on the top of the shipping containers and at ground level to prevent migrants from climbing over the shipping containers. These measures have had some success in limiting migrant entry.

The floating buoys were deemed hazardous, so (I believe) they have been mostly removed. The wire, however, has remained… until just recently. The Federal government ordered the Border Patrol agency to remove the wire, and the work to accomplish that was started last year. Texas objected and blocked Border Patrol from removing the wire by obtaining an injunction from a Federal court. That ruling was appealed, but the Federal appellate court affirmed it.

The federal government appealed to the Supreme Court (expedited), which recently ruled that Border Patrol could continue cutting the wire. Note that the Supreme Court ruled very narrowly: Border Patrol can still cut the razor wire that Texas installs. The Court did not rule that Texas is prohibited from installing the wire.

So, in a “brave act of defiance,” Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered the Texas National Guard to re-install razor wire on the border. They also built a wire fence around Shelby Park, a relatively small patch of land that Border Patrol used as a gathering ground for migrant processing.

Many in the US proclaim that the Supreme Court has prohibited Texas from laying wire or blocking the park. But I believe that those proclamations are false, and the potential outcome might be an endless process of laying and cutting the wire. Bear in mind that, as far as I can tell, there is no animosity between Texas National Guard soldiers and the Border Patrol agents. I do not believe we will see a tense standoff, but instead respectful conduct of soldiers and agents performing their duties during the dispute.

Governor Abbott has filed a suit to enjoin the federal government from obstructing Texas's efforts to secure the border. Abbott uses the US Constitution to buttress his claim:

• First, Abbott relies on Article IV, Section 4 to describe the Federal government's duty: “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion…” He describes the failure of the Federal government to protect the states.

• Abbott then articulates the recourse taken by Texas in Article 1, Section 10, Clause 3: “No State shall, without the Consent of Congress,… engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.”

Abbott argues that the state of Texas, in light of the fact that the Federal government has failed in its duty to protect the states, has the right to enforce the laws to control immigration into the United States.

Some legal scholars have opined that the Federal government will prevail if the issue makes it to the courts. They claim that the “invasion” referenced by Abbott cannot be proven, and the border will remain open, subject to the Biden administration's whim.

That may be true, but Megatron (http://t.me/megatron_ron) announced today that the Biden administration will back down from the dispute. This report has not been verified, but it would be a devastating hit to the credibility of the Biden administration if true. Bear in mind, though, that the very first paragraph of this article points out a statistic that should be of great interest to Biden and his people. Something about 70% of American voters…

NOTE: I noticed that the comments on Megatron’s Telegram post were getting pretty rude. I discussed this with Aleks, and we decided to leave the comments section active unless things get out of hand. Frankly, I think the readership here is much more thoughtful than the commenters who posted there, and we won’t see similar activity.

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