Texas Governor Greg Abbott has declared his state’s “right to self-defense,” using “the supreme law of the land” to give soldiers power over President Joe Biden on immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Abbott and the Justice Department have been duking it out in court over a number of deterrent tactics that the governor has tried to use to stop the surge of migrants illegally crossing into the U.S. through the southern border. The tactics have included a floating barrier across the Rio Grande and razor-wire fencing.
In the 2023 fiscal year, which ended in September, U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) had 3.2 million encounters, according to agency data. Encounter data includes USBP Title 8 Apprehensions, Office of Field Operations (OFO) Title 8 Inadmissibles and Title 42 Expulsions.
Abbott issued a statement on Wednesday criticizing Biden for violating “his oath to faithfully execute immigration laws enacted by Congress.”
In his statement, Abbott said the Biden administration’s failure to “protect each [State] against invasion,” as stated in Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution, “has triggered Article I, § 10, Clause 3, “which reserves to this State the right of self-defense. “For these reasons, I have already declared an invasion under Article I, § 10, Clause 3 to invoke Texas’s constitutional authority to defend and protect itself. That authority is the supreme law of the land and supersedes any federal statutes to the contrary.”