The White House pushed back hard on Thursday against the latest showdown between Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and the president. Joe Biden about who controls the southern border.
In a statement published on “.
He said he would ignore any effort by the federal government to remove barbed wire that Texas had installed along the border with Mexico.
“The federal government has broken the compact between the United States and the states,” Abbott said in the statement. “The executive branch of the United States has a constitutional duty to enforce federal laws protecting the states, including immigration laws currently in force. President Biden has refused to enforce these laws and even violated them. The result is that it has broken records for illegal immigration. »
Governor Greg Abbott speaks after signing bills to strengthen border security, Austin, Texas, June 8, 2023.
Brandon Bell/Getty Images
He argued that the state’s right of self-defense superseded any federal law, despite a United States Supreme Court decision that the Border Patrol could remove the barbed wire. (Abbot’s claim that a state has the right to “self-defense” has never been tested in court.)
“This authority constitutes the supreme law of the land and supersedes any federal law to the contrary,” he said. “The Texas National Guard, Texas Department of Public Safety, and other Texas personnel act under this authority, as well as state law, to secure the Texas border.
Abbott had ordered the Texas National Guard and the Department of Public Safety to install barbed wire, particularly in Shelby Park, which is near the Eagle Pass section of the border, the crossing site for large migrants and a hot spot in the back and forth between the White House and the governor.
President Joe Biden delivers remarks during a campaign event in Manassas, Virginia, January 23, 2024.
Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters
The U.S. Supreme Court, by a 5-4 vote Monday, allowed federal agents to remove the wire, which administration officials and immigration advocates had called dangerous and inhumane .
“On Tuesday, DHS sent Texas a letter describing the access Border Patrol requires at Shelby Park to do its work, and requiring Texas to confirm that this access will be respected,” a spokesperson for the Border Patrol said. White House to ABC News. “As we have said many times before, Governor Abbott should stop his extreme political stunts and stop making the work of the Border Patrol harder and more dangerous.
The Department of Homeland Security asserts that state activities interfered with clear federal supremacy in setting border control policy.
The letter to Texas, obtained by ABC News, demands that Texas “remove” any obstructions at Shelby Park in Eagle Pass.
Texas law enforcement, on orders from Abbott, blocked Customs and Border Protection’s physical access to Shelby Park.
The Supreme Court on Monday overturned a lower court injunction barring DHS from cutting the wire, “and restored the department’s right to cut and move the concertina wire placed by Texas in order to carry out its statutory functions,” a writes DHS General Counsel Jonathan Meyer in Texas. Attorney General Ken Paxton.
A concertina wire, placed by the Texas National Guard, is installed around the perimeter of a pit previously used to hold migrants at Shelby Park on the U.S.-Mexico border in Eagle Pass, Texas, January 16, 2024.
Kaylee Greenlee Beal/Reuters
DHS believes that Shelby Park is not open to the public, as Texas claims. Meyer says the department acquired permanent real estate interests in and around Eagle Pass in 2008 to support the construction and maintenance of border barriers in and around the Shelby Park area.
“We demand that you immediately remove all obstructions there, including access points to Shelby Park near the intersections of Ryan and Main Streets and Ryan and Rio Grande Streets, as well as access points on Ford Street and the two access points at the end of Ryan Street,” Meyer wrote.
Meyer outlined areas that DHS has requested access to that he believes are blocked by Texas, saying they need access and that Texas needs to confirm that it will grant access to park by January 26.
Abbott continued the fight Thursday.
“The President of the United States is failing in his duty to enforce the laws passed by Congress that prohibit illegal entry into the United States,” Abbott said on Fox News.
But he did not answer whether he would physically block federal agents from accessing Shelby Park.
House Speaker Mike Johnson supported his fellow Republican in his escalating battle with the White House on Thursday.
“I stand with Governor Abbott. The House will do everything in its power to support him,” Johnson posted on X.
The Supreme Court justices did not elaborate on their order, but it was seen as meaning that federal border agents could regain full control of the disputed border area while the litigation continues.
Despite this, Texas DPS spokesperson Lt. Chris Olivarez released a video Thursday of the Texas National Guard reinforcing some of the barriers along the Rio Grande at Eagle Pass.
Texas DPS and the Texas Military Department “will continue to hold the course,” he said.
Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro, who represents San Antonio, said in an article on X that Abbott is “using the Texas National Guard to obstruct and create chaos at the border.”
“If Abbott defies yesterday’s Supreme Court decision, @POTUS must now establish sole federal control of the Texas National Guard,” he said.
John Cohen, former acting undersecretary for intelligence and analysis at the Department of Homeland Security, said Abbott’s interpretation was not accurate.
“An invasion referring to a massive migratory movement as an invasion is consistent with the ideological beliefs of white supremacy,” said Cohen, an ABC News contributor.
“We are certainly in a time of humanitarian crisis, and we are certainly facing a dramatic increase in the number of people fleeing poverty, violence, public health concerns and seeking the protection and security of the United States in the framework of international agreements and federal law,” he said.
