Texas Governor Greg Abbott orders state police and National Guardsmen to return migrants apprehended after illegal border crossings to the border. The announcement follows news of approximately 5,000 migrants being apprehended in Texas over the Independence Day weekend.
“I have authorized the Texas National Guard and Texas Department of Public Safety to begin returning illegal immigrants to the border to stop this criminal enterprise endangering our communities,” Governor Abbott said in a written statement. “As the challenges on the border continue to increase, Texas will continue to take action to address those challenges caused by the Biden Administration.”
Gov. Abbott signed an executive order on Thursday ordering and empowering the Texas National Guard and Texas Department of Public Safety to “apprehend illegal immigrants who illegally cross the border between ports of entry and return them to the border.”
“While President Biden refuses to do his job and enforce the immigration laws enacted by Congress, the State of Texas is once again stepping up and taking unprecedented action to protect Americans and secure our southern border,” the Texas governor added. “The cartels have become emboldened and enriched by President Biden’s open border policies, smuggling in record numbers of people, weapons, and deadly drugs like fentanyl.”
Abbott’s order follows a declaration by Kinney County that the border county is being “invaded.” Kinney County Judge Tully Shahan said, “We will no longer allow the sovereignty of Texas to be invaded by those unwilling to obey our laws.”
He and officials from several other border and non-border counties called on the governor to take additional actions they believe are authorized under the U.S. and Texas constitutions.
“We are taking these steps in hopes of encouraging our Governor to acknowledge the existence of an invasion on our border with Mexico and take the necessary actions to preserve and protect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Texas,” Tully’s added in his statement.
The governor added, “As noted in the executive order, the Biden Administration “has abandoned the covenant, in Article IV, § 4 of the U.S. Constitution, that ‘[t]he United States . . . shall protect each [State in this Union] against Invasion,’ and thus has forced the State of Texas to build a border wall, deploy state military forces, and enter into agreements as described in Article I, § 10 of the U.S. Constitution to secure the State of Texas and repel the illegal immigration that funds the cartels.”
Other steps taken by Governor Abbott and the State of Texas to secure the border can be found here.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday-morning talk show. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.
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