Protecting the United States borders isn’t just a matter of policy, it’s a matter of safeguarding the country’s sovereignty and ensuring the safety of its citizens. If President Joe Biden doesn’t understand that bedrock fact, it’s up to the states to take charge — and Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott is leading the way.
According to the Texas Tribune, an online outlet based in Austin, Abbott on Monday signed three bills aimed at stepping up the Lone Star State’s fight against the border crisis in the face of the federal government’s refusal to enforce the law.
The most controversial is Senate Bill 4, which takes effect in early March, and essentially makes it a state crime to enter Texas from Mexico at any point that isn’t a lawful port of entry into the United States. Not only that, it allows local law enforcement to arrest undocumented immigrants and authorizes state magistrate judges to deliver expulsion orders.
BREAKING – Justified or not justified? – Governor Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) of Texas has just signed a new law allowing Texas law enforcement officials to arrest migrants entering the state from Mexico without legal authorization.
NOTE: The law goes into effect in March. It… pic.twitter.com/0yvggGEkNz
— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) December 18, 2023
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Crossing into the United States outside a designated port of entry is already illegal under federal law, of course — but the Biden administration’s non-enforcement of that law has allowed the illegal immigration problem to explode.
“Biden’s deliberate inaction has left Texas to fend for itself,” Abbott said, speaking in the hard-hit border town of Brownsville, according to NBC News,
He added that the bill would allow the state to “stop the tidal wave of illegal entry into Texas.”
In addition to the measure making illegal immigration a state crime, Abbott signed a bill that would strengthen Texas’ borders, with $1.54 billion earmarked for barriers and other security measures.
Do you think illegal immigrants should be arrested?
Naturally, a series of left-wing organizations plan to challenge the bill in court, according to CBS News. The group is led by the American Civil Liberties Union, which has promised to file a lawsuit based on the primacy of the federal government in immigration matters.
Democrats, Mexican government officials and other organizations have gone on record as being opposed to the bill — and while the Department of Justice hasn’t commented on whether it plans to challenge the law, the White House made it clear it was vehemently opposed to the legislation.
“This is an extreme law that will make communities in Texas less safe,” said Angelo Fernández Hernández, a White House spokesman, according to CBS.
“Generally speaking, the federal government — not individual states — is charged with determining how and when to remove noncitizens for violating immigration laws.”
Of the other two bills Abbott signed, one dedicates more state spending on border barriers and for Texas state troopers to patrol the notorious Colony Ridge housing development, an area that has become, according to the New York Post, a haven for cartel operations northeast of Houston. The other increases the mandatory prison term for smuggling illegal immigrants from two years to 10, according to the Texas Tribune.
At issue in all of this is the fact that the federal government isn’t doing a terribly good job of it, to the extent it’s even trying at all.
Customs and Border Protection data show that illegal immigration numbers are still at elevated levels, with 240,988 total encounters along the southwest border in October.
While this was down slightly from September’s number of 269,735, CBP said in a November media release that “we continue to see the largest displacement of individuals globally since World War II.”
Furthermore, while federal enforcement of immigration laws takes precedent over the states in these matters, it isn’t allowed to mostly or entirely abandon law enforcement measures. When the Biden administration makes it clear that it has a preference to let border states bear the brunt of the economic concerns created by the federal government’s de facto encouragement of illegal immigration, states have to fill the breach.
Trafficking of both human and contraband items are public safety issues. When the federal government fails, it falls upon state governments to pick up the slack. The White House is very good at saying immigration law is under federal jurisdiction, but considerably less effective when it comes to backing up those words.
The border crisis continues unabated, with hundreds of thousands pouring into the country illegally each month. This pattern started with the Biden administration, and it doesn’t seem likely to change any time in the near future.
The only thing the White House and its Democratic allies have shown themselves to be particularly effective at doing is carping about any kind of attempt to enforce the border or distribute the burden by busing illegal immigrants released in border states to Democrat-run cities. They’ve shown little interest in keeping people who shouldn’t be in the country in the first place.
Abbott has thrown down the gauntlet. It’s time for other border states to join him and Texas, as well.
If the DOJ chooses to challenge this in court, so be it — but let it be known that, when it came to choosing between enforcing immigration law or retaining supremacy of the federal government to choose to enforce it (or not), the current administration went with the latter.
