Sgt. Matthew Lucibello/U.S. Army National Guard, 130th Public Affairs Detachment
The Gateway Pundit previously reported that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) declared an invasion on the Texas border with Mexico, invoking the U.S, and Texas constitutions.
Over five million illegal aliens have crossed the U.S. southern border with Mexico since Joe Biden assumed the presidency on January 20, 2021 and threw out President Trump’s successful policies that had secured the border.
The flood of migrants at the border continued in October, with nearly 300,000 contacts/gotaways reported by Customs and Border Patrol.
“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,” Abbott announced.
“I’m using that constitutional authority, & other authorization & Executive Orders to keep our state & country safe:”
- Deploy the National Guard to safeguard the border, and to repel and turn back immigrants trying to cross the border illegally
- Deploy the Texas Dept. of Public Safety (DPS) to arrest and return immigrants to the border who crossed illegally, and to arrest illegal immigrants for criminal activity;
- Build a wall in multiple counties on the border;
- Deploy gunboats;
- Designate Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations;
- Enter into a compact with other states to secure the border;
- Enter into agreements with foreign powers to enhance border security;
- Provide resources for border counties to increase their efforts to respond to the “border invasion.”
“Two years of inaction on your part now leave Texas with no choice but to escalate our efforts to secure our State,” Gov. Abbott wrote in the letter to Joe Biden. “Your open-border policies, which have catalyzed an unprecedented crisis of illegal immigration, are the sole cause of Texas having to invoke our constitutional authority to defend ourselves.”
Article 4 Section 7 of the Texas Constitution states, “GOVERNOR AS COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF MILITARY FORCES. He shall be Commander-in-Chief of the military forces of the State, except when they are called into actual service of the United States. He shall have the power to call forth the militia to execute the laws of the State, to suppress insurrections, and to repel invasions.”
As a result, Gov. Abbott has decided to deploy military tanks to ten different locations along the Texas–Mexico border, aside from gunboats.
Ten locations along the Texas–Mexico border will get Vietnam-era M113 armored personnel carriers, according to a document obtained by The Texas Tribune.
The outlet reported:
Three days after Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted a legally dubious invocation of the “invasion clause” of the U.S. and Texas constitutions over the high number of migrant encounters at the Texas-Mexico border, his border mission is set to include armored personnel carriers designed to carry troops into battle alongside tanks, according to a planning document obtained by Army Times and The Texas Tribune.
The order issued Thursday by Texas Military Department officials to the headquarters overseeing Operation Lone Star reveals that the National Guard will soon deploy 10 M113 armored personnel carrier vehicles to the border.
According to the order, around 50 soldiers will be trained to operate the vehicles, and state officials will identify 10 positions to station them along the border.
The Texas Military Department said in a written statement Friday that in addition to the 10 armored vehicles, the Texas National Guard is increasing “aircraft flights and security efforts” on the border.
“These actions are part of a larger strategy to use every available tool to fight back against the record-breaking level of illegal immigration,” the department said. “The Texas National Guard is taking unprecedented measures to safeguard our border and to repel and turn-back immigrants trying to cross the border illegally.”