US Civil War Fears As Texas Sets Up Wires At Mexico Border Over ‘Migrant Invasion’ (Worthy News In-Depth)
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
WASHINGTON/AUSTIN (Worthy News) – Fears were mounting Wednesday of civil war within the United States as Texas troops cut access to federal agents to part of the U.S.-Mexico border after a massive influx of migrants fleeing armed conflicts, persecution, and poverty.
The Texas National Guard closed off the 47-acre Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, Texas, preventing federal agents from reaching this border crossing amid escalating tensions between President Joe Biden and Governor Greg Abbott.
After federal border patrol agents were unable to rescue three migrants who drowned in the Rio Grande River, the Biden administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court to rule whether Texas had the authority to build physical barriers to prevent migrants from entering the country.
The court sided with the Biden administration, arguing that the federal government has the ultimate authority over immigration and control of the country’s borders.
Texas Governor Abbott responded to the court’s decision by ordering law enforcement agencies to erect more fencing made primarily of razor wire —further escalating the conflict.
Additionally, at least 10 Republican-run states have sent National Guard troops or other security personnel to Texas to help protect the border, confirmed Governor Abbott over the weekend, adding he expected more to join.
Some 25 Republican state governors backed Abbott and “Texas’s constitutional authority to defend and protect itself” against a migrant “invasion” of his state.
STANDING IN SOLIDARITY
“We stand in solidarity with our fellow Governor, Greg Abbott, and the State of Texas in utilizing every tool and strategy, including razor wire fences, to secure the border,” they said in a letter.
Some believe the tensions could escalate into a civil war after the Biden administration reportedly gave Abbott 24 hours to allow federal authorities to take over the border.
Abbott argued that the increase in migrants, many of whom are looking to seek asylum in the United States, constitutes an “invasion,” therefore giving the state the authority “to defend” itself.
In an open letter seen by Worthy News, the governor wrote that 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.”
He stressed that “President Biden has refused to enforce those laws and has even violated them. The result is that he has smashed records for illegal immigration.”
Roughly 3.3 million migrants entered the United States illegally in 2023, most of them through the Mexico-U.S. border, according to data analyzed by Worthy News.
The number of migrants crossing the border from Mexico into the United States in 2023 surpassed the populations of 17 states, according to figures released by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
The 17 states are: Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia and Wyoming.
BUSIEST MONTH
There were 371,036 foreign nationals reported to have illegally entered the U.S. nationwide in December, the largest number for the month in U.S. history, Worthy News partner The Center Square reported this week.
Though Governor Abbott said he wanted to end the “invasion,” the influential and controversial InfoWars website doubted his sincerity.
InfoWars reporter Chase Geiser showed footage of the unfinished border wall, saying: “Now I am on the United States side of the wall,” adding within seconds that he was now in Mexico while walking into a field.
“Yes, we can talk all day about barbed wire at Shelby Park,” he said, calling it a distraction. “You can pretty much walk into the United States. I don’t see any law enforcement here.”
The reporter earlier showed what appeared to be personal belongings left behind in a hurry by migrants near the wall, ranging from toothpaste and medicines to a bra and shoes.
InfoWars views are shared by longtime leader of Texas’ unlikely secessionist movement, Daniel Miller, who predicts that Texas will become independent from the rest of the United States.
“Whether by conscious decision or collapse of the federal system in its inability to meet its basic requirements, I think Texas becomes an independent nation definitely inside of 30 years,” he said in published remarks.
REVERSING TRANSITION
Texas joined the American Union in 1845, but Miller’s Texas Nationalist Movement (TNM) hoped to reverse that transition.
On Wednesday, the realities on the ground made clear there was a growing standoff between Texas and the federal government ahead of the presidential elections.
Abbott urged volunteers to work with the Texas Military Department (TMD) full-time for up to $55 per day to help set up border wires.
The volunteers must already be members of the TMD in an initiative that is part of Abbott’s Operation Lone Star to combat the rise in illegal immigration.
The Biden administration has argued the wire restricts federal Border Patrol agents from accessing parts of the border.
Abbott condemned “Biden’s reckless open-border policies” and maintained that despite the Supreme Court’s decision, the wire is an “effective deterrent against the illegal border crossings.”
While initially, migrants arriving illegally in the U.S. were almost all Mexican nationals, officials note that migrants today come from a vast array of countries across South and Central America and Africa amid growing turmoil there.
NO DEPORTATION
Additionally, many of the often desperate men, women, and children seeking a new life in the U.S. originate from China and India, experts say.
That has added to problems as, in many cases, migrants can’t be deported as the U.S. has no agreement with their native countries, notably Venezuela.
In 2022, Texas began busing migrants to Democrat-led cities around the country to challenge the Biden administration’s border policies. Arizona has also bused migrants out of state.
The Migration Policy Institute has warned that the Republican-sponsored trips had repercussions far beyond the numbers of thousands.
After crossing the southern border, migrants used to spread “organically, quietly, and gradually” across the U.S., the Institute wrote.
“The buses have instead brought migrants to these cities in an orchestrated, visible, and deliberately disorderly way. … In generating this chaos, the busing scheme has succeeded at least in showcasing the challenges at the border,” the organization wrote.
And with hundreds of thousands more on the way, the United States is facing growing domestic challenges, Russia warned.
DESTRUCTIVE CONFLICT
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Friday made an ominous warning that an “even more destructive” civil war may erupt in Texas due to the ongoing migrant crisis.
The ex-leader and ally of current Russian president Vladimir Putin warned of what might come as a result of America’s “total inability to cope with the migration crisis.”
Medvedev, who is the Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman and the head of the United Russia party, called a possible civil war “another vivid example of the US hegemony getting weaker.”
He said on social media that this is “a process that is happening from the inside and is the result of the Americans’ actions.”
The Putin ally added that America is “so eagerly supporting the Kyiv neonazis,” referencing the nearly 2-year-old war in Ukraine, but has become “seemingly blind to everything else.”
While critics view his comments as Moscow’s wishful thinking, the remarks highlighted that allies and enemies are all watching the tensions inside the still United States of America.
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