09/17/2023
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, famous for litigating against the Biden Rush, has just been acquitted of all impeachment charges [Republican Texas AG Ken Paxton is acquitted of corruption charges at historic impeachment trial, by Paul J. Weber and Juan A. Lozano, AP, September 16, 2023]. This great news clears the way for Texas Republicans to confront the Biden Regime, which has declared war Texas’ attempts to fight the Great Replacement illegal-alien invasion that the Regime is blatantly aiding and abetting. Instead of Remain in Mexico, Biden wants Remain in Texas. It’s time for Gov. Greg Abbott and other Texas Republicans to show Biden they mean business and start enforcing immigration law to provoke a showdown. It might be the only way to save what’s left of America and the Historic American Nation.
The battle over the buoy border has drawn big headlines. In June, Abbott placed the barrier in the Rio Grande at Eagle Pass. Democrats, the Regime Media, and of course the Mexican government, threw a hysterical tantrum. When two corpses were found near the buoys, the Left shrieked bloody murder. Democrats condemned the barrier as a death trap. Mexico demanded its removal: “The placement of chained buoys by Texas authorities is a violation of our sovereignty,” the Mexican Foreign Ministry declared. N.B. no one seems to be bothered by the violation of American sovereignty by the thousands of illegals simultaneously pouring into our country [Body of Migrant Found in Texas’ Buoy Barrier in Rio Grande, by J. David Goodman and Edgar Sandoval, New York Times, August 3, 2023].
Biden reacted as expected. In July, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rang a bogus alarm about a supposedly endangered mussel, the Mexican Fawnsfoot, that lives in the river.
Two days later, Biden’s Justice Department sued on the grounds that the barrier impeded “navigable waters.”
Federal Judge David Ezra agreed. He said the buoys require approval by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. “The Court also finds that Texas’s conduct irreparably harms the public safety, navigation, and the operations of federal agency officials in and around the Rio Grande,” he wrote. But he didn’t order their total removal, just saying the buoys could not be in the middle of the river and must be moved to the U.S. side, which will diminish their effectiveness [Judge orders Texas to remove floating border barriers, granting Biden administration request, by Camilo Montoya-Galvez, CBS, September 6, 2023].
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals stayed Ezra’s ruling, and so the buoys will remain until a higher court rules [Border buoys will stay in place a bit longer, court of appeals says, by S.E. Jenkins, CBS, September 12, 2023].
To his credit, Abbot has done more than deploy border buoys. When Title 42 public-health expulsions of illegals were set to end in May, he deployed a Tactical Border Force that comprises state law enforcement and National Guard to patrol the border. Razor wire went up, too.
And Abbott’s effort appeared to net some results. Illegal entries in the areas patrolled by state authorities dropped, demonstrating that it was more than an empty stunt. Federal authorities began telling illegals to avoid the areas patrolled by Texas law enforcement [‘Sad joke’: Border Patrol union rips DHS for warning of ‘targeted enforcement’ in Texas, by Lee Brown, NY Post, May 9, 2023].
‘Sad joke’: Border Patrol Union rips DHS for warning of ‘targeted enforcement’ in Texas https://t.co/74ICTEL3iM pic.twitter.com/UMtdEkElH3
— New York Post (@nypost) May 10, 2023
And, of course, Biden also deployed troops to help illegals sneak into the country.
Texas’s biggest move in the border battle: busing illegals to Sanctuary Cities. Since April 2022, the Lone Star State has sent more than 34,000 illegals to Chicago, New York City, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and other locales. The Sanctuary Cities are reeling. New York City Mayor Eric Adams now warns that illegals will destroy his city unless something is done to stop their arrival. The busings kept immigration front and center in the national discourse (although in fact many illegals arrived independently) [Is Texas’ Busing Responsible for the Migrant Crisis Across Cities?, by Miriam Jordan and Edgar Sandoval, New York Times, September 7, 2023].
Biden considers forcing migrant families to remain in Texas.
This scam was tried years ago & was shot down by a judge.
We will send Biden the same swift justice.
And, we will add even more buses of migrants to Washington D.C.https://t.co/732FdGZ8jB
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) September 8, 2023
So the Biden Regime came up with a plan. It doesn’t involve building a wall or increasing deportations. It’s “Remain in Texas.” Citing a precedent that Reagan set in the 1980s, Biden would force illegals to wait near the border while their bogus asylum applications are processed.
The first time around, massive migrant camps sprouted statewide. That will happen again. The Regime says it will deport those migrants who travel outside of Texas, very likely an empty promise.
The plan sounds terrible for Texans, but precedent suggests that Biden can stop illegals from moving inside the country. The law requires illegals to be detained or deported. Biden wants to do it (unconstitutionally) selectively [Biden Administration Considers Forcing Migrant Families to Remain in Texas, by Hamed Aleaziz, Los Angeles Times, September 7, 2023].
Naturally, Abbot’s Texas strongly opposes Biden’s latest move to keep the Great Replacement invasion going. Abbott has threatened to bus even more illegals out of the state if Biden moves ahead. And the state has a lawsuit ready to go. U.S. Rep. August Pfluger introduced an amendment to the latest funding bill to prohibit any money going to the proposed operation [Pfluger Prohibits Remain-In-Texas Policy, Pfluger.house.gov, September 13, 2023].
So Texas isn’t surrendering. But national Republicans could do much more to counter Biden’s Border Treason.
Immigration patriot Tucker Carlson thinks the governor should use the National Guard to do the Border Patrol’s job. While state authorities can stand guard at the border, they’re not allowed to make arrests or deport illegals. Tucker accuses Abbott of betraying his own people. “He refuses to do that. He won’t do it,” Carlson told a Michigan audience last weekend. “And it’s not like no one suggested it. I’ve suggested it to him three times, including in private at a cocktail party in Dallas last year. ‘What are you doing, man? Don’t you have a National Guard? Why don’t you seal the border?’” Abbott’s excuse: It’s “complicated” [Tucker Carlson Accuses Greg Abbott of Betraying Texas, by Khaleda Rahman, Newsweek, September 11, 2023].
Carlson is right. The Texas Senate passed bills this summer that would authorize Texas law enforcement to detain illegals caught at the border, create a state agency dedicated to border patrol, make it a state crime to illegally enter Texas from Mexico, and increase the penalties for human smuggling. But Abbott walked away from them.
Instead, he favored watered-down legislation in the House of Representatives that only increased penalties for smugglers.
And so far, the Texas House hasn’t challenged the federal anarcho-tyranny [With Texas House adjourned, Senate takes bigger swing at border enforcement and human smuggling, by Uriel J. Garcia, Texas Tribune, June 7, 2023].
And what the Texas House did do is nearly inexplicable. It focused on impeaching and removing the state’s effective attorney general, Ken Paxton, the Biden Regime’s most potent foe. Ever since Biden entered office, Paxton has sued repeatedly to good effect. He ended a deportation freeze, forced a reversal on “Remain in Mexico,” kept alive Title 42 public-health expulsions, and notched a few other wins. More recently. he’s led the legal fight against Biden’s nefarious parole program that will permit more than 360,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans to enter the country annually.
My view: Paxton is a proven fighter and one of the few Republican officials who gets the importance of lawfare to counter the Democrats’ Open Borders agenda.
NEW: More illegal crossings in Eagle Pass, TX this afternoon captured by our fantastic FOX drone team. The Biden admin promised consequences for those who cross illegally after the end of T42, but it has become apparent most migrants don’t fear those consequences & expect to be… pic.twitter.com/CwdVqFNjIK
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) September 15, 2023
Texas is considering new ways to challenge the border invasion. The state is building a new border wall to stem the flood [Texas Gov. Abbott touts new border wall construction, amid Biden challenges over buoy barrier, by Adam Shaw, Fox News, September 13, 2023].
The most important thing for Abbott to consider is that Biden won’t stop. Ever. It’s a planned invasion. It’s crucial to the Great Replacement! As well, Democrats want to keep the borders open, but the damage is minimal to blue cities. Hence, “Remain in Texas” rather than “Remain in Mexico.”
It’s up to Texas to do something about the invasion. The federal government refuses to do so and nothing (short of impeachment) will convince Biden to change his mind on the matter.
It will, of course, lead to a legal battle if Texas starts detaining illegals and doing the Border Patrol’s job. But Texas has (still) a great Attorney General who has a proven track record of beating the administration in court. And this move is necessary to ensure we still have a country.
Next steps: Abbott must start detaining and deporting illegals, champion the bills the Texas Senate passed, and sign them into law. It’s the only way for Texas to get the upper hand in its fight with the regime.
And our future — the very survival of the Historic American Nation — depends upon it.
Washington Watcher II is an anonymous DC insider.
This is a content archive of VDARE.com, which Letitia James forced off of the Internet using lawfare.