Earlier this fall, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, frustrated and angry at the Biden regime’s purposeful inaction on securing the border, stepped up and issued a threat: He will use his authority and empower his own personnel to start arresting illegal aliens in the absence of federal enforcement.
“By virtue of the power and authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the State of Texas, I hereby order that the Texas National Guard assist DPS in enforcing Texas law by arresting lawbreakers at the border,” Abbott’s letter to Texas Adjutant General Major Gen. Tracy Norris said in July, when he first issued the order.
USA Features News, which reported on the declaration at the time, added:
Last month, Abbott said during a summit to discuss border security that any migrants who criminally trespass into Texas or commit other offenses would be subject to arrest and jailed.
In addition, the GOP governor announced plans to build new sections of border wall so as to plug gaps left when President Joe Biden canceled federal wall construction begun under the Trump administration.
In arguing as to why National Guard members should be empowered to make arrests, Abbott noted in his letter that “more manpower is needed” to deal with the hundreds of thousands of migrants who have been crashing the Tex-Mex border since Joe Biden took the oath of office for a presidency that was stolen on his behalf.
In addition, Abbott explained that according to the Texas constitution, his powers as “Commander-in-Chief of the military forces” of the state grant him the authority to issue arrest powers to his Guard troops.
Abbott also “likewise recognizes that the governor can call on state military forces ‘to enforce state law’ and ‘to assist civil authorities in guarding [or] conveying prisoners,’” said the letter.
“To respond to this disaster and secure the rule of law at our Southern border, more manpower is needed—in addition to the troopers from DPS and soldiers from the Texas National Guard I have already deployed there—and DPS needs help in arresting those who are violating state law,” Abbott noted further.
Now, the plan has been implemented, according to the Center for Immigration Studies:
In a dive into new political and legal water, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has initiated the first-ever border security operations in which thousands of National Guard troops — newly imbued with civilian arrest authority and given 40 hours of traditional police training in the use of deadly force — have started handcuffing illegally entering migrants on state trespassing charges.
It’s not clear how the regime in Washington will react, but what is clear is that Abbott doesn’t care what Biden or his lackeys in the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department think.
“Nobody’s ever really used the guard before in this capacity,” Texas DPS Director Steven McCraw confirmed to the CIS. “We’re going to use them to actually secure the border. The governor, the legislature, and the citizens of Texas have made it very clear; they want the border secure. It is good for our federal partner as well. The federal government should be thanking the state of Texas, and it’ll make the rest of the country safer as we increase the level of security.”
In all, around 3,000 Guard troops have been trained in law enforcement operations, and they will primarily be using their new arrest powers to apprehend single adult males who crossed the border illegally along state-built sections of border fencing that includes about 142 parcels of private ranch land.
And frankly, it’s about time. GOP governors who are concerned about Biden’s unconstitutional behaviors and failure to execute the laws of the country as he swore to do must follow Abbott’s lead and think outside the box.
Sources include: