A dispute over razor wire on the Texas border has broken out and is turning not only into a Texas problem but a nation wide issue. The Supreme Court issued a very brief order, in response to a Justice Department’s request in order to remove the razor wire that Texas state had installed on the United States-Mexico border. This wire was put up and designed as a way to keep immigrants from crossing into Texas illegally. This order was publicly denounced by Texas governor Greg Abbott causing a huge disagreement between the state and federal authorities.
Abbott argued that Texas has the constitutional right to protect themselves from what he calls an “invasion” and claims that this is “the supreme law of the land and supersedes any federal statutes to the contrary.” He then went onto announce that Texas would continue to add the razor wire to the border despite the Supreme Courts ruling. The federal government decided to send troops of their own which were effectively blocked by the Texas National Guard from entering a problem area.
The debate is a border security issue and many people are standing with governor Greg Abbott. The people in support include a massive trucker convoy headed to the border town of Eagle Pass, which has become the focal point in the border crisis debate. Members of this convoy said they are traveling down in mass to show solidarity for Abbott’s efforts to secure the border and to urge federal authorities to do more.
Abbott issued a statement taking shots at President Joe Biden for failing to protect the nations borders, saying “By wasting taxpayer dollars to tear open Texas’s border security infrastructure, President Biden has enticed illegal immigrants away from the 28 legal entry points along this State’s southern border — bridges where nobody drowns — and into the dangerous waters of the Rio Grande,”. Just a few days after this many attorney generals have signed a letter addressed to Biden that says, “Governor Abbot’s efforts to secure our border, and Attorney General Paxton’s work defending those efforts, must be supported rather than opposed. We are a nation of laws. And without a border, we would quickly cease to be a nation at all,”
These attorney generals that signed the letters are from the states of, Iowa, Utah, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.
As this dispute continues on it will be interesting to see how many other states will jump in to back up Texas and protect the border. As well as what the federal government will do in response to Abbott disregarding the orders from them on what he must do.
