Thousands of Americans are expected to gather April 29 in Austin, Texas, for a rally calling on state lawmakers to secure the southern border.
“I actually expect this to be the biggest border event in the history of the country,” Mark Meckler, president of the Convention of States and a founder of the tea party movement, tells “The Daily Signal Podcast.”
The goal of the rally is “to push the Texas legislature and the Texas governor into action,” Meckler says, since President Joe Biden and his Department of Homeland Security have failed to act to secure the U.S.-Mexico border.
The event, which aims to draw 50,000 attendees, is called “How Many More?” and seeks to bring attention to the humanitarian crisis at the southern border.
“How many more people have to die of fentanyl poisoning in the United States of America before we actually take this seriously?,” Meckler says on the podcast. “How many more dead migrants do ranchers in Texas have to find on their ranches? … How many more people have to die in cartel violence? How many more young girls and young women have to be sold into sexual slavery? How many women have to be raped on their transit through Central and South America and into the United States?”
The rally, to be held at the Texas Capitol, will feature prominent proponents of border security, including U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas; Mark Morgan, former acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection; and veteran journalist Lara Logan. Rock guitarist Ted Nugent also is scheduled to perform.
All are welcome at the event, Meckler says, because “it doesn’t matter where you go in the United States, whether you’re in Maine … whether you’re in Texas or Arizona or California, people are really upset about this issue.”
Migrants from all over the world are crossing the southern border illegally and it “is an invasion,” Meckler says, adding that “Texas has the right to repel that invasion.”
“One of the ways we’re going to do that, we’re hoping, is by the creation specifically of a Border Protection Unit, probably under the Department of Public Safety here in Texas,” he says. “They will be tasked with making sure that folks who are coming across with nefarious intent are sent back, [that] they are repelled across the border.”
Meckler says he and other advocates of border security are calling on Texas state lawmakers to act because “this administration has shown itself relatively unwilling to do anything serious on our southern border.” Biden’s lax border policies mean it is up to the American people to act, he says:
So what we believe is, we have to do what the citizens of this country have always done, which is take matters into our own hands and not rely on the federal government to protect us. We as Texans have the ability, we have the statutory power, we have the constitutional power to do what it takes to address this humanitarian and national security crisis.
More than 1 million illegal aliens already have been encountered by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents at the southern border since fiscal year 2023 began Oct. 1.
In fiscal year 2022, which ended Sept. 30, Customs and Border Protection reported a record 2.3 million land encounters with migrants at the border.
Asked what the Founding Fathers likely would say about the current situation on the southern border, Meckler replies that they would be “horrified.” He goes on to explain America’s border security history:
I think there’s also a little-known historical fact which is, originally, the states were always responsible for enforcing their own borders. If you go back to the founding era of the country, if you go back to 1789 after the Constitution is ratified, while the responsibility for securing our borders falls squarely on the shoulders of the federal government, it was just not possible for them to secure the borders.
The country was vast, the federal government was small, and so it fell to the states to defend themselves against foreign powers and invaders, sometimes with the help of the federal government, but usually by themselves. So I think this is in keeping with the historic precedent of our country and understanding that states have to take care of themselves where the federal government cannot or will not.
Meckler joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to talk about the mission of the April 29 rally and what to know before attending the event.
Listen to the podcast below:
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