On January 24, 2024, Texas took a stand. 

On that day, the Lone Star State’s governor, Greg Abbott, issued a statement affirming Texas’ right to self-defense, a statement repudiating not only the Biden administration’s open-border policy, but also a recent Supreme Court decision upholding temporarily the alleged right of the Biden administration to cut razor-wire barriers erected by Texas to stop the flow of illegal immigrants. The Texas National Guard was dispatched to sprawling Shelby Park at Eagle Pass to prevent federal agents from accessing a secured section of the border, triggering a standoff. 

The possible ramifications of Texas’ act of defiance were not lost on the Greek choristers in the mainstream media. Eager to amplify the supposed dangers of the “Far Right,” voices in the press immediately likened the event to the Confederacy. “Eagle Pass is today’s Fort Sumter,” the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Will Bunch hyperbolized. “The standoff between Gov. Abbott’s tin soldiers and U.S. Border Patrol is the greatest challenge to federal authority in 60 years. The president must act.” In point of fact, the Inquirer regards the Texas border standoff to be worse than Fort Sumter, since, whereas no one was killed during the bombardment of Fort Sumter, “four migrants trying to reach U.S. soil at or near the disputed park in Eagle Pass, Texas, have drowned under circumstances that are arguably linked to the dispute between the militaristic approach of the Texas National Guard and the comparatively humane, locked-out agents of President Joe Biden’s administration.” 

The Biden administration responded to Texas’ intransigence by issuing an ultimatum, warning Texas to allow federal agents access to the border at Shelby Park by Saturday, January 27, or face unspecified consequences. An administration unwilling to stand up to Afghani Taliban, Iranian ayatollahs, Chinese communists, or Palestinian terrorists was suddenly aroused from its slumber by that existential threat to the American body politic, the state of Texas. And Border Patrol agents who under the Trump administration were falsely accused by a lying media of inhumane treatment of illegal immigrants, including whipping Africans from horseback, suddenly became paladins of democracy and international justice, the kind-hearted enablers of American benevolence towards the huddled masses arriving illicitly on our soil from China, the Middle East, and Sub-Saharan Africa.

The building border crisis has been years in the making. On his very first day in office, Biden issued six executive actions and proposed a new immigration bill — the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021 — all of which sent a message far and wide that Trump-era immigration controls were over. The six rules were:

• Proclamation on Ending Discriminatory Bans on Entry to the United States;

• Executive Order on the Revision of Civil Immigration Enforcement Policies and Priorities;

• Memorandum Preserving and Fortifying Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA);

• Proclamation on the Termination of Emergency With Respect to the Southern Border of the United States and Redirection of Funds Diverted to Border Wall Construction;

• Executive Order on Ensuring a Lawful and Accurate Enumeration and Apportionment Pursuant to the Decennial Census; and

• Memorandum Reinstating Deferred Enforced Departure for Liberians.

U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021

The first proclamation ended the Trump-era travel bans on citizens from certain countries known to foment international terrorism (widely caricatured in the press as the “Muslim travel ban”) and streamlined visa procedures for foreigners arriving from the likes of Burma, Eritrea, Libya, Iran, Somalia, Venezuela, Syria, and Yemen. The Executive Order on the Revision of Civil Immigration Enforcement Policies and Priorities rescinded President Trump’s Executive Order 13768, which required prompt removal of all illegal immigrants and denied federal funding to sanctuary states. The Proclamation on the Termination of Emergency ended border wall construction. The executive order regarding the census reversed Trump’s 2020 order that would have banned illegal immigrants from the census (since the census is the basis for reapportionment and redistricting, Trump perceived that illegal immigrants, while not voters themselves, could be exploited to redraw congressional districts in ways that would favor Democrats). And the U.S. Citizenship Act would have extended amnesty and a pathway to citizenship to eight million illegals already in the United States. 

And that was just on Day 1. Since that time, the Biden administration has been on a blistering pace, having taken 296 executive actions on immigration in his first year in office alone (compared to 86 for President Trump’s first year), including three on February 2, 2021, just three weeks into his term: the Executive Order on the Establishment of Interagency Task Force on the Reunification of Families; the Executive Order on Creating a Comprehensive Regional Framework to Address the Causes of Migration, to Manage Migration Throughout North and Central America, and to Provide Safe and Orderly Processing of Asylum Seekers at the United States Border; and the Executive Order on Restoring Faith in Our Legal Immigration Systems and Strengthening Integration and Inclusion Efforts for New Americans.

The response around the world was electric and immediate. With the assurance that America’s southern border was for all intents and purposes wide open, the thousands of people already in the illegal immigration conduits arising in Ecuador and Colombia swelled to hundreds of thousands and eventually millions. Lucrative networks of human traffickers sprang up to escort migrants from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East arriving at Quito, Bogota, and other northern South American cities, who were willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars for guidance across the hazardous and roadless Darien Gap into Panama, and thence northward through Central America and Mexico to the U.S. border. Organized into huge caravans, they walked unimpeded across numerous national borders, thanks to a general understanding among Latin American political leaders that there would no longer be any political or economic price to pay. Upon arrival at the American border, they were given a rapturous welcome by federal government functionaries, who transported them wherever they wanted to go and scheduled court hearings for them — hearings that the vast majority have no intention of attending. 

Show of support: Texas Governor Greg Abbott (center, seated) is joined by 14 other governors at a press conference at Eagle Pass. Half of all governors have now expressed solidarity with Texas in its defiance of the Biden administration. (AP Images)

No one knows how many millions of people have entered the country illegally since the start of the Biden presidency, but estimates range from eight million to more than 10 million, with even the most conservative estimates showing that the population of illegal immigrants living in the United States has at least doubled over the last three years. 

And that’s just the numbers we know about, based on records of monthly interdictions. Many more have evaded capture and interdiction — mostly, one supposes, for nefarious reasons. Thus, alongside the relatively orderly legions of Asian, African, and Latin American immigrants who go straight to the nearest Border Patrol official to hand themselves in for perfunctory processing and release, there is an unknown number of more sinister types — drug traffickers, terrorists, infiltrators, and gang members, for example — who take every precaution to avoid contact with the authorities. 

Part of the original plan was to flood Texas with illegal immigrants in order to flip this electorally critical state blue. That, after all, is how California, the home of Ronald Reagan, was flipped more than a generation ago. Texas, however, was having none of it. Greg Abbott has been irresolute and RINO-ish on some issues, but illegal immigration, it turns out, is not one of them. Soon after the invasion of illegal immigrants was unleashed, Abbott began shipping them in large numbers to smug, mostly northern, blue states and sanctuary cities, prompting cries of foul play from suddenly overwhelmed Democratic leaders in Illinois, New York, and elsewhere. It’s been a genius tactic, exposing over and over again to public scrutiny the bare-faced hypocrisy of the allegedly compassionate Left, who have had to resort to name-calling and accusations of political gamesmanship to mask their dismay at the hordes of unwashed foreigners they profess to love being dumped on their urban and insular enclaves. 

The most celebrated episode in the entire saga so far was the airlifting of 50 Venezuelan immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard in September 2022, shortly after they had been transferred from Texas to Florida (another state that the Dems desire to flip). It turned out, to no one’s surprise, that the affluent limousine liberals who populate the exclusive island wanted no part of the Venezuelan refugees. As it happened, the summer tourist season was over, and the resident population was not sufficient to hire them all as household servants. That, at least, was the rationale for the speedy relocation of the 50 immigrants elsewhere; but in reality, domestic help needs aside, there were no offers even to house or feed the unfortunates. Clearly, the same liberal elites so contemptuous of Trump’s alleged xenophobia weren’t about to allow foreign strangers into their homes and gated communities, and more especially a contingent that had escaped from Venezuela, a Marxist hellhole that has become an acute embarrassment for international socialists.

The Martha’s Vineyard episode did as much as any single event to persuade a substantial portion of the American public that the Democrats’ and radical Left’s solicitude for the plight of illegal immigrants was more feigned than heartfelt. As long as they could be exploited for political ends, illegal immigrants were to be garlanded and laden with government handouts — but, in the best tradition of NIMBY-ism, they were not welcome in the sacred precincts actually controlled by leftist elites.

Yet despite the nauseating hypocrisy, the blatant subversion, and the flagrant disregard both for public opinion and for congressional authority and oversight, Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas have been allowed to continue their program of mass importation of future Democratic voters without serious opposition — until recently. In a matter of a few weeks, the border debacle has been transformed from talk-show fodder to the focal point of two serious confrontations: the open defiance by the state of Texas and many other red states of the Biden administration and the Supreme Court ruling, and the unprecedented impeachment of a sitting Cabinet secretary, Mayorkas (yes, we know, Secretary of War William Belknap was impeached in 1876, but the actual impeachment and eventual Senate acquittal took place after he resigned from office; Mayorkas does not show any inclination to resign).

Borderline Insanity

The standoff at Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, Texas, began when the governor of Texas refused to grant federal officials access to the park to cut the razor wire that Texas officials had put in place to stop the entry of illegals. This was to be the latest installment of a long-running game between state and federal officials, whereby the former have been erecting barriers, including walls, shipping containers, and concertina wire, along the open border, only to have Biden officials rush in and tear them down. But then something unexpected happened: The supposedly conservative Supreme Court sided with the Biden administration, ruling on January 22 that the Biden administration could remove offending razor wire and other obstacles pending review of a lower court ruling in Texas’ favor — in other words, back to business as usual for the foreseeable future.

That, as it turned out, was the final straw for Texas’ often-too-accommodating Governor Abbott. In a blistering statement alluding to his earlier proclamation of November 16, 2022 declaring the border situation an “invasion,” Abbott laid out in no uncertain terms his intent to continue securing the border, no matter what the Biden administration said:

The federal government has broken the compact between the United States and the States. The Executive Branch of the United States has a constitutional duty to enforce federal laws protecting States, including immigration laws on the books right now. President Biden has refused to enforce those laws and has even violated them. The result is that he has smashed records for illegal immigration.

Despite having been put on notice in a series of letters — one of which I delivered to him by hand — President Biden has ignored Texas’s demand that he perform his constitutional duties.

President Biden has violated his oath to faithfully execute immigration laws enacted by Congress. Instead of prosecuting immigrants for the federal crime of illegal entry, President Biden has sent his lawyers into federal courts to sue Texas for taking action to secure the border.

President Biden has instructed his agencies to ignore federal statutes that mandate the detention of illegal immigrants. The effect is to illegally allow their en masse parole into the United States.

By wasting taxpayer dollars to tear open Texas’s border security infrastructure, President Biden has enticed illegal immigrants away from the 28 legal entry points along this State’s southern border — bridges where nobody drowns — and into the dangerous waters of the Rio Grande.

…The failure of the Biden Administration to fulfill the duties imposed by Article IV, §4 has triggered Article I, §10, Clause 3, which reserves to this State the right of self-defense. For these reasons, I have already declared an invasion under Article 1, §10, Clause 3 to invoke Texas’s constitutional authority to defend and protect itself. That authority is the supreme law of the land and supersedes any federal statutes to the contrary. 

The response in the sycophantic media was immediate and telling. As noted above, the Philadelphia Inquirer invoked Fort Sumter and urged Biden to federalize the Texas National Guard. Meanwhile, less histrionic but no less pro-radical-left Mother Jones opined:

Texas’ response to the Supreme Court order has been alarming. Abbott issued a statement stating that “[t]he federal government has broken the compact between the United States and the States.” Compact theory was championed by John C. Calhoun, one of the staunchest defenders of slavery. It essentially views states as “independent sovereigns” that are free to reject federal authority. It was used to justify the “nullification” of federal laws and, ultimately, secession from the union by Southern states…. 

Article I, § 10, Clause 3 of the Constitution declares that “no State shall, without the Consent of Congress … engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.” In this case, Texas is not being invaded. Migrants, many of whom have legitimate claims of asylum, presenting themselves at the border is not an invasion. Illegal border crossings are something that occurs under every administration and does not constitute an invasion…. Texas is inviting a constitutional crisis by signaling that it is prepared to ignore the Supreme Court if it does not get its way…. The radical and dangerous legal theories being advanced by Texas previously provoked a Civil War and have been broadly rejected for more than a century.

Ah, yes, the old “nullification will lead to Civil War” canard. The fact that “radical and dangerous legal theories” that “have been broadly rejected for more than a century” are being invoked is irrelevant to both the law and the facts of the case. The very word “federal,” from Latin foedus, “covenant,” implies that the federal government, having been brought into being by a compact among the sovereign states, is ultimately inferior to them, and more than a century of judicial precedent affirming federal supremacy does not alter that fact. The American Civil War was fought not to “settle” a legal and constitutional issue by force (as if that were even possible in any context of just and limited federal powers), but because, even in Lincoln’s day, understanding of the constitutionally subordinate role of the federal government was insufficient. The facts, as the now-vilified John Calhoun and many other 18th- and 19th-century statesmen once understood, are that the federal government is not above the Constitution, nor the states strictly bound to obey its edicts regardless of constitutionality. Of course, the Left has no problem with American states and cities nullifying immigration laws by declaring “sanctuary” cities where local law enforcement refuses to cooperate with, and even hampers the efforts of, federal immigration authorities. But in such cases, nullification serves the interests of the Left, whereas a defiant, deep-red Texas plainly does not.

For now, the Biden administration appears to have backed down and averted a more overt showdown, pending further Supreme Court action. But the Supreme Court, acquiescent as judiciaries tend to be to precedent, will probably rule against Texas again, and in less ambiguous terms.

Brazen: Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas has repeatedly assured Congress that the border is under control, which is technically true: It’s controlled by drug cartels, the Chinese Communist Party, and the UN-supported NGOs spurring on the waves of illegal immigrants. (AP Images)

Impeachment

Meanwhile, in the wake of the spectacular failure of the first Mayorkas impeachment vote, the Biden administration and its radical Left enablers are jubilant and emboldened. For it seems not only is there no judicial recourse for the travesty at the border, but no congressional remedy either. Of the three hard “no” votes among the reliably self-destructive GOP, one of them was cast by Wisconsin representative Mike Gallagher, the most visible detractor of China in the House. Gallagher has been stridently warning for years about Chinese espionage on American soil; only last September he told Fox News, “The CCP has continued its relentless espionage campaign against America. We are slowly waking up to it. But we’re just beginning to scratch the surface in terms of this activity on American soil.” Yes, and the news lately is full of reports of the massive numbers of Chinese immigrants pouring across the border, along with the devastating fentanyl crisis being driven by Chinese suppliers. Gallagher doubtless is well aware of all of this, yet he singlehandedly deep-sixed the Mayorkas impeachment by not revealing his intention to vote against it (at least the other two dissentients indicated their choice publicly before the vote).

Undeterred, the House did succeed in impeaching Mayorkas with a second vote, this time with the cancer-stricken Steve Scalise in attendance. The margin was 214-213, with the same three GOP congressmen, apparently unmoved by angry constituents, siding with a united Democratic caucus. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has already announced his intention to try Mayorkas in the Senate, smugly secure in the knowledge that Senate Democrats will protect their own, and Mayorkas and his border project will remain in place. 

 So we have come to a critical pass at aptly named Eagle Pass — whether or not there can be any remedy for an administration so bent on bringing about radical revolutionary redemption that it is willing to illegally, and with clear malice aforethought, import millions upon millions of illegal aliens (many of them with clear criminal or subversive intent) in hopes of bringing about the dissolution of the Republic by demographic overload. And make no mistake about it: This is precisely what they intend to do. And it’s certainly no accident that this crisis is unfolding in the shadow of the MAGA movement, which the American radical Left-Deep State axis of control views as an existential threat to its long-laid plans for national subversion.

Unfortunately, unlike other, less-subtle instruments of national betrayal, such as selling military secrets or committing acts of open war, deliberately enabling an invasion by illegal immigrants from hostile regimes in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East is proving too diffuse a crime for judicial remedy and too politically charged for resolution via an act of Congress. In the end, perhaps only good old-fashioned state and local defiance of this orchestrated insanity will suffice. But don’t expect Biden’s fanatical minions to give up without a fight.