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FIRST ON FOX – A gaggle of 26 attorneys basic are defending Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s right to defend his state “against invasion” amid a bitter border battle between Texas and President Biden.
Last week, Abbott mentioned he would assert Article 1 powers to defend against an “invasion” on the border whereas the Biden administration refuses to implement federal immigration legal guidelines. His announcement sparked an argument that may play out in court docket about what authorized grounds Abbott can declare to help his choice.
In a letter obtained by Fox News Digital, 26 Republican attorneys basic tell President Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas that they help the Lone Star State, saying that “thousands and thousands of individuals illegally coming into Texas as a part of a coordinated assault on our border is an invasion” and that “states must be able to defend themselves from invasion.”
The escalating disaster on the Texas-Mexico border got here to a head final week after the Supreme Court dominated 5-4 to quickly overturn a decrease court docket’s injunction that banned the federal authorities from reducing razor fencing Texas had put in alongside the border close to Eagle Pass whereas litigation continues.
Concertina wire strains the trail as members of Congress tour an space close to the Texas-Mexico border, Jan. 3, 2024, in Eagle Pass, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
Abbott mentioned that although the Supreme Court mentioned the Biden administration might proceed reducing the fencing, the order doesn’t forestall him from persevering with to assemble the razor wire fencing – which is what he promised to do regardless of sharp criticism from the White House.
In their letter, the AGs advised the White House, “As lawyers yourselves, you must know that reports that Texas is ignoring or ‘defying’ the Supreme Court are wrong, either misunderstanding or deliberately misstating the law.”
“The Supreme Court’s order did not tell Texas that it could or could not do anything. Texas should be applauded for continuing to try to protect the border despite the federal government now, again, being able to try to destroy the barriers Texas builds,” the AGs observe.
The AGs added that “states must be able to defend themselves from invasion,” and that nobody critically contests that time.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
Article I, part 10, clause 3 lays out the circumstances that states could act to defend themselves in a disaster, the AGs wrote.
Article 1, Section 10, which Abbott says was “triggered” by Biden’s inaction on the border, states, “No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.”
“Justice Scalia said it best in his dissent in Arizona v. United States: States have a ‘sovereign interest in protecting their borders,’” they mentioned, referencing a 2012 Supreme Court case.
“Right now cartels, terror groups, and other bad actors are taking advantage of the chaos by the border to orchestrate a mass influx of people. Gangs are using the flood of people to hide their ‘predator’ members as they enter the United States,” they mentioned.
“Millions of people illegally coming into Texas as part of a coordinated assault on our border is an invasion. No state, not even Texas, can handle such an influx of people. And no one—not Texas, not the United States—knows whether any person illegally crossing the border is engaging in additional criminal activity,” they argued.
ABBOTT DECLARES TEXAS HAS ‘RIGHT TO SELF-DEFENSE’ FROM MIGRANT ‘INVASION’ AMID FEUD WITH BIDEN ADMIN
A U.S. Border Patrol agent watches over greater than 2,000 migrants at a subject processing middle on Dec. 18, 2023 in Eagle Pass, Texas. (John Moore/Getty Images)
Attorneys General Brenna Bird of Iowa and Sean Reyes of Utah, who led the Monday letter, observe that since Biden’s inauguration day in 2021, greater than 6 million unlawful immigrants have crossed the southern border. “That is effectively adding the population of Iowa and Utah to our country in less than three years,” they mentioned.
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“The invasion on our southern border has made every state a border state,” Bird advised Fox News Digital in an announcement.
“If the Biden Administration won’t do its job to secure our border and keep Americans safe, it should step aside to let the States do the job for them,” she mentioned.
Texas’ combat is our combat,” Attorney General Reyes told Fox News Digital. “And if the White House is not going to defend our legal guidelines and harmless residents, states have the authority beneath the U.S. Constitution to defend themselves,” he mentioned.
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