AMAC EXCLUSIVE
This week, Americans were treated to footage of National Guard troops being overrun by young, military-age men who had breached the razor wire set up at the border in Texas. While the men were eventually stopped, and some were arrested, it was a potent image of what we really face. Open border enthusiasts from both parties have demanded we not call what is happening at our southern border an “invasion.” What else is one to call it? And what do we do about it?
As for the first question, we must continue to speak clearly. These are illegal immigrants, not mere “undocumented” immigrants. “Undocumented” makes it sound as though the main problem is that somebody didn’t fill out some forms. That’s true of Biden’s DHS (more of that in a moment), but it is not what we are dealing with. These are people from other countries who have refused to follow American laws about entry to our country. And, as the video shows, they are willing to use force to do so. As Kansas Senator Roger Marshall emphasized this week, this is not a crisis. It is an invasion.
As to what we are to do about it, we must first understand that under a Democratic administration, we will have no help from the federal government. The Biden Administration created these conditions by reversing Trump-era border policies. It has steadfastly refused to return to anything sane, instead demanding new legislation to do something about it. Joe Biden even blamed Donald Trump for the events in Texas since he opposed the supposedly bipartisan border bill. (Never mind that when there are opportunities to vote to deport criminal aliens, as with the Laken Riley Act, the vast majority of Democrats vote no.) And even on the meager measures taken under the Biden Administration, any attempt to control and monitor our southern border has been a conspicuous failure.
It’s hard to calculate the number of “gotaways”—illegal crossings of our border in which there were no “encounters” because the crossers simply evaded any law enforcement. But what’s really disturbing is what we might call the “Let ‘em get aways” that have happened because of the Biden Administration’s “undocumented” problem. As the Daily Mail reported this week, a study by the Transactional Records Clearinghouse showed that nearly 200,000 deportation orders were thrown out by courts because the Department of Homeland Security in the Biden years has failed to file “Notice to Appear” paperwork.
They don’t know who’s coming in. And even when they know who should be going out, the Biden Administration doesn’t get the job done.
Second, national Republicans have little will to correct this. The $1.2 trillion (yes, trillion) spending bill was voted on and signed this weekend as the nation slept, vindicating my grandmother’s conviction that nothing wholesome happens after midnight. Though the legendary economist and wit Herb Stein was no doubt right that a thing that can’t go on forever won’t, the Treasury’s magical money printers are still running on high. Yet Republicans who voted for the bill are touting it as including money for more border agents. While nice, it doesn’t justify the drunken-sailor fiscal policy—and it won’t change the dynamics of our border.
Third, however, we do have leadership coming from red states where politicians are actually serving the common good of the people. Texans were treated to quite a bit of whiplash this week as SB 4 was first cleared by the Supreme Court on Tuesday morning and then stopped again by the 5th Circuit Court, which heard arguments on Wednesday but has not issued any ruling on the law. The bill allows law enforcement to stop and detain people suspected of being in the country illegally, makes it a class B misdemeanor for those shown to be so for the first time and a second-degree felony for repeat offenders. First-timers can choose between spending six months in jail prior to deportation or being deported immediately. Repeat offenders can serve up to twenty years in prison. Given that state law enforcement agents would be empowered to do this, Texas could thus overcome the lawlessness of her own “sanctuary cities.”
Texas Governor Greg Abbott is confident that, ultimately, SB 4 will be upheld. And he has continued Operation Lone Star, the project begun in 2021 by which the Texas National Guard and Department of Public Safety have been doing the work of protecting the Texas border from trafficked drugs, weapons, and people—now with contributions from the National Guards of fourteen more states. Last month Texas began building a military base on the Rio Grande close to Shelby Park in order to better protect the border.
Other Texans are thinking and working on these problems as well. Jace Yarbrough, who is running for the Texas State Senate in District 30, wrote an op-ed in The Blaze arguing that Texas ought to resurrect retired State Senator Matt Schaefer’s proposed Border Protection Unit Act, which “would have created a new law enforcement authority with agents who can stop border crossers from breaking the law, including by building barriers, arrest and detention, and referral for deportation.” As Yarbrough notes, no matter who wins the White House this fall, the likelihood of Democrats occupying it in the future is a near certainty. What our federal government will not do to protect the country will have to be done by the states.
Abbott, whom many on the right considered a bit squishy, has shown a spine of steel as the times have changed. Many other young politicians (and candidates such as Yarbrough) have been stepping up, too. They realize that simply shrugging shoulders at all the gotaways and complaining about the “let ‘em get aways” that the Biden Administration has created is not enough. If the higher authority is derelict, the states must make up for this failure. It may not be ideal, but we can take comfort from the fact that hard times quite often reveal and even bring out the strength in those who love their country. We’re seeing that in Texas and other states led by Republicans who aren’t content to let our country simply be invaded by an unvetted mass of people. The best leaders love their country too much to surrender it to chaos.
David P. Deavel teaches at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas, and is a Senior Contributor at The Imaginative Conservative. Follow him on X (Twitter): @davidpdeavel.
