Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) officially declared there is an invasion at the U.S.-Mexico border on Tuesday, invoking the "Invasion Clauses of the U.S. and Texas Constitutions" to give more authority to the state's response to the crisis.
In a statement on Twitter, Abbott said he is "using that constitutional authority, [and] other authorization & Executive Orders to keep our state [and] country safe."
Some of the new "unprecedented measures" that Texas will now undertake include:
- The Texas National Guard will now turn back people who illegally cross the southern border.
- Deploy the Department of Public Safety to return illegal immigrants to the border.
- Designate Mexican cartels are foreign terrorist organizations.
- Finish building border walls in multiple counties.
I invoked the Invasion Clauses of the U.S. & Texas Constitutions to fully authorize Texas to take unprecedented measures to defend our state against an invasion.
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) November 15, 2022
I'm using that constitutional authority, & other authorization & Executive Orders to keep our state & country safe: pic.twitter.com/2Jt5HEMgp5
Abbott's announcement comes after several border counties in the state issued their own declarations of an invasion. Operation Lone Star has been Texas' response to the border crisis since March 2021. This has included deployments of their National Guard and state troopers, along with busing released migrants to sanctuary cities further within the United States.
3-DAY RECAP:@TxDPS & multiple law enforcement agencies worked together in detecting human smuggling & tracking illegal immigrants who bypass checkpoints through ranches in Brooks Co. Numerous illegal immigrants were apprehended w/ the use of @TxDPS tracking K9s & air support.1/2 pic.twitter.com/a8IA7OY6Of
— Chris Olivarez (@LtChrisOlivarez) November 11, 2022
The Rio Grande Valley, Del Rio, and El Paso Sectors have been some of the busiest areas of the southern border during the historic crisis. For just the month of October, there were almost 124,000 encounters between those three sectors, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.
