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The US Supreme Court ruled this week against Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who has erected miles of barbed wire along the Mexican border in an effort to stem unprecedented flows of immigration.
Recently, attention has focused on a border crossing on a small stretch of the Rio Grande River that has become one of the busiest points for immigrants crossing illegally from Mexico.
As part of Operation Lone Star, Abbott has been trying to block or prevent entry into his state, including placing about 30 miles (48 kilometers) of barbed wire along the town of Eagle Pass.
In December alone, a record number of over 300,000 illegal immigrants crossed the border. It is noted that 3.8 million people have entered the United States illegally since President Joe Biden took office in 2021.
At the same time, however, the Republican governor has promised to add more barbed wire to crack down on what he calls the invasion.
So he and the Texas judiciary took matters into their own hands and denied federal border patrol officials entry to the border, citing Texas' right to be protected from immigration.
However, these developments and the political confrontation that followed, have brought about a division in the US.
On Thursday, the 25 Republican governors issued a joint statement of solidarity with Abbott on taking over the protection of American citizens from historic levels of illegal immigrants, deadly drugs like fentanyl and terrorists entering the country.
In his statement, Abbott said the failure of the Biden administration to protect any state from invasion as stated in Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution, we have activated Article 1, Section 10, Clause 3, which reserves to that state the right of self-defense.
“For these reasons, I have activated Article 1 and 10, Clause 3 to invoke Texas' constitutional power to defend itself. That authority is the supreme law of the land and overrides any conflicting federal law,” he said.
Abbott stated that the Texas National Guard, Texas Department of Public Safety and other Texas personnel are acting under that authority, as well as state law, to secure the Texas border.
In parallel with the pressure on the border, Americans on social networks are posting videos from the border in the furious southern states that show illegal immigrants entering the American territory even under the surveillance of the American authorities without stopping, while their authenticity is being checked.
Under the weight of the developments, the Texas attorney general on Friday rejected the Biden administration's request to give federal immigration officials full access to a park along the southern border that the state's National Guard has surrounded with barbed wire and soldiers.
The Texas attorney general vowed to continue Texas' efforts to protect its southern border in the face of any efforts by the Biden administration to undermine the state's constitutional right to self-defense.
Gov. Greg Abbott is hitting out at Joe Biden and the federal government, noting that it's Texas' right to protect itself and that the federal government isn't doing enough to stop illegal immigrants.
Abbott and other Texas officials have argued that the state's actions are designed to discourage immigrants from entering the country illegally, accusing the federal government of not doing enough to prevent illegal crossings.
But the Biden administration has said Texas is preventing Border Patrol agents from patrolling the Rio Grande, managing immigrants and helping those who may be in danger.
While the White House has called his policy inhumane and counterproductive, Abbott has argued that he is protecting his state from an "invasion," and his actions in Eagle Pass have drawn support from other Republican governors across the country.
On Monday, however, as the BBC notes, the Supreme Court handed a victory to the administration of President Joe Biden, a Democrat, in its showdown with Texas.
The justices ruled in a 5-4 vote that the US Border Patrol, a federal agency, can cut or remove the wire erected by the Texas National Guard. The Justice Department had argued that the fence makes the job of Border Patrol agents more difficult by posing a risk to both immigrants and law enforcement. Some of the illegal immigrants were harmed by the wires.
The move does not appear to violate the Supreme Court ruling, which gave permission to remove the existing fence but said nothing about adding new barriers. At the same time, Democrats are urging the president to take a tougher stance on Texas.
At the same time a convoy of hundreds of Americans plans to go to the Texas border to stop immigrants crossing into the US from Mexico. The group called "Take Our Border Back" has been organized on Telegram and now has more than 1,600 members.
Political confrontation in the Senate and Biden's appeal
At the same time, US President Joe Biden said on Friday, according to The Guardian, that the deal on immigration policy being negotiated by the US Senate is the "toughest and fairest" set of possible reforms and promised to "close the borders ” the day he will sign the bill.
Bipartisan talks have reached a critical point amid growing Republican backlash. Republicans argue that Biden should have kept the restrictive policies of former Republican President Donald Trump, his party's front-runner.
"What he has negotiated will be, if passed into law, the toughest and fairest set of border security reforms we've ever had in our country," Biden said in a statement.
"It would give me, as President, new emergency power to close the borders when they get overcrowded. And if I am given this power, I will use it the day I sign the bill", he emphasized.
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