Major decisions are being made without Biden’s input.
Republican governors are rallying behind Texas Governor Greg Abbott as he confronts the federal government in a dispute over border authority. The Texas National Guard, in defiance of a Supreme Court ruling, persisted in constructing razor wire barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border on Tuesday, impeding the federal Border Patrol’s operations. Governor Abbott, justifying these actions in a Wednesday statement, asserted that his authority to counter a perceived “invasion” of the state takes precedence over federal law.
Expressing support for Abbott’s stance, GOP governors Kevin Stitt (Oklahoma), Kristi Noem (South Dakota), Ron DeSantis (Florida), Glenn Youngkin (Virginia), and Brian Kemp (Georgia) emphasized their solidarity. Governor DeSantis argued that if the Constitution rendered states powerless against invasion, Texas would not have joined the union, asserting that Texas is upholding the law while President Biden is flouting it.
Governor Youngkin accused the Biden administration of turning every state into a border state and commended Abbott for taking actions that border officials purportedly refuse to do to secure the border. Governors Stitt, Noem, and Kemp echoed their support for Texas.
In response, the federal government, through court filings, contended that the Texas National Guard obstructed Border Patrol activities along the Rio Grande and blocked off areas previously used for processing migrants. Democrats, including Texas Representatives Joaquin Castro and Greg Casar, have urged President Biden to nationalize the Texas National Guard to ensure compliance with the court’s decision and federal law.
Abbott’s Wednesday statement contended that the federal government had “broken the compact” with the states, providing justification for disregarding federal law and the Supreme Court. This assertion aligns with the “compact theory,” an antiquated notion of state supremacy used to justify Confederate states’ secession during the Civil War. However, the Supreme Court consistently rejected this legal theory in the early years of the U.S., particularly during President John Adams’s administration.
LOOK:
If the Republican Governors in Alaska, Indiana, Mississippi, & Nevada all throw their hats in with Texas and the other Red states then 25/50 states will be resisting the Feds open border policy 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/17qbdEZBUz
— Conrad (WWIII⚡️Analyst) ☦️ (@GnomeRad) January 25, 2024