JUST IN: Greg Abbott declares ‘invasion’ over border crisis, invokes right to ‘self-defense’

"The failure of the Biden administration to fulfill the duties imposed by Article IV section 4 has triggered Article 1, section 10, Clause 3, which reserves to this State the right of self-defense," Abbott said. "For these reasons, I have already declared an invasion under Article I, section 10, Clause 3 to invoke Texas's constitutional authority to defend and protect itself."

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court was asked to hear the appeal from the Biden administration against a lower court that had ruled that they were not legally entitled to remove the reinforced concertina wire erected by Texas to keep illegal immigrants from flooding across the border. The Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, sided with the Biden administration.

In response, Texas has vowed to keep the border secure anyway. The Texas National Guard continues to hold Eagle Pass park and prevents Biden's border control from accessing the area. Texas is keeping illegal immigrants out of the area, arresting them for the crime of crossing an international border into Texas illegally, and continues to place razor wire along the border.

The border crisis has led to massive illegal immigration into Texas and the US. Abbott has taken to bussing these individuals, processed and released by border control, out into the rest of the country. This has put the border crisis on the doorsteps of cities across the US that are now buckling under the weight. New York and Chicago have begged him to stop the busses, but Abbott has begged the federal government to close the border.

Full statement follows:

"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.

"Under President Biden’s lawless border policies, more than 6 million illegal immigrants have crossed our southern border in just 3 years. That is more than the population of 33 different States in this country. This illegal refusal to protect the States has inflicted unprecedented harm on the People all across the United States.

"James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and the other visionaries who wrote the U.S. Constitution foresaw that States should not be left to the mercy of a lawless president who does nothing to stop external threats like cartels smuggling millions of illegal immigrants across the border. That is why the Framers included both Article IV, § 4, which promises that the federal government “shall protect each [State] against invasion,” and Article I, § 10, Clause 3, which acknowledges “the States’ sovereign interest in protecting their borders.” Arizona v. United States, 567 U.S. 387, 419 (2012) (Scalia, J., dissenting).

"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 I, § 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 Texas National Guard, the Texas Department of Public Safety, and other Texas personnel are acting on that authority, as well as state law, to secure the Texas border."