By Joe Villasana
AUSTIN, Texas (KWTX) – Texas Governor Greg Abbott, recently re-elected to his third term in office, on Tuesday announced he had invoked the Invasion Clause in the U.S. and Texas constitutions in order to authorize the state to take “unprecedented measures” to defend itself “against an invasion.”
“I’m using that constitutional authority and other authorization and executive orders to keep our state and country safe,” Abbott tweeted.
The governor said the actions will allow him to deploy the National Guard to “safeguard and to repel and turn back immigrants” trying to cross the border illegally.
The Texas Department of Public Safety will also be allowed to “arrest and return to the border” immigrants who cross the border illegally or commit a crime, Abbott said.
Abbott, County Judges at Odds Over What ‘Repelling Invasion’ Looks Like
According to Abbott, the State of Texas plans to build a border wall in multiple counties on the border, deploy gun boats to secure the border, designate Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations, enter into compact with other states to secure the border, enter into agreements with foreign powers to enhance border security, and provide resources for border counties to increase border security efforts to “respond to the border invasion.”
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, a surge in migration from Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua in September brought the number of illegal crossings to the highest level ever recorded in a fiscal year.
The Associated Press reported migrants were stopped 227,547 times in September at the U.S. border with Mexico, the third-highest month of Joe Biden’s presidency. It was up 11.5 percent from 204,087 times in August and 18.5 percent from 192,001 times in September 2021.
In the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, migrants were stopped 2.38 million times, up 37% from 1.73 million times the year before, according to figures released by CBP.
The annual total surpassed 2 million for the first time in August and is more than twice the highest level during Donald Trump’s presidency in 2019, the Associated Press reported.