In 2006, the New York Times predicted the end of democracy in the U.S.
In a March 1 editorial, the Times wrote about a Supreme Court case disputing Texas’ redistricting maps, which were drawn after Republicans got the majority in the Texas House in the 2002 election. The mid-decade maps were highly gerrymandered. The Times noted it was a trend that blended partisanship and technology:
Nationally, the lines drawn for 2002 produced the least competitive Congressional elections in history -- challengers beat just four incumbents, and fewer than 40 races were even minimally competitive. If the Supreme Court permits those drawing legislative lines to use high-powered computers to create district lines that predetermine the outcomes of all but a handful of Congressional races, America may need to come up with another word for its form of government, because "democracy" will hardly apply.
Welcome to 2024.
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about how Texas National Guard soldiers seized a public park from federal Border Patrol agents, and then physically restrained those Border Patrol agents from saving a mother and her 8- and 10-year-old children.
Two weeks later, it looks like Texas Governor Greg Abbott and 24 out of 25 of the other Republican governors are all but declaring civil war.
In a letter Abbott put out on January 24, he asserted that Biden’s border policy is a dereliction of his Constitutional duties.
AND, Abbott declares - with the support of half the governors in the U.S. - that Article IV, Section 10 gives him the right to take over the defense of his borders himself.
Abbott wrote in a press release: “I have already declared an invasion under Article I, § 10, Clause 3 to invoke Texas’s constitutional authority to defend and protect itself. That authority is the supreme law of the land and supersedes any federal statutes to the contrary."
This is Article 1, Section 10, with an explanation:
The state must submit to “a complete delegation of authority to the Federal Government to provide for the common defense.”
Complete. Delegation. Not state authority that supersedes Federal authority. Not even remotely what Abbott is claiming.
Abbott also cites Arizona vs. the U.S. - the 2012 Supreme Court decision on what is known as Arizona’s “Papers Please” law.
The Court struck down the law.
Specifically, concerning Arizona’s desire to make “it a state crime for someone to be in the United States without proper authorization,” the Court ruled “Congress left no room for states to regulate in that field, or even to enhance federal prohibitions.”
In addition, according to another Supreme Court decision in 1996, “In order for a state to be afforded the protections of the Invasion Clause, it must be exposed to armed hostility from another political entity, such as another state or foreign country that is intending to overthrow the state's government.”
In other words, Abbott has no standing to say he’s being invaded. There is no foreign army on the other side. Just desperate people looking to escape violence and poverty in their home countries.
Not only is Abbott ignoring or willfully misinterpreting these past Supreme Court decisions, he’s willfully ignoring the ruling on Monday which affirms the Federal Border Patrol’s authority to cut down razor wire the state of Texas has put up in the Rio Grand.
Here’s a link from ScotusBLOG about this.
Alex Nowrasteh, who has written for the Cato Institute (a libertarian think tank that is pro-immigration), opined yesterday on his Substack that people are coming because the job market is good, and U.S. citizens don’t want to do the kind of labor migrants are willing to do.
There may be something to that, but I think a stronger reason is simply that people are escaping state or gang-sponsored violence in their home countries. They’re also experiencing drought and starvation due to climate change.
Unfortunately, I cannot give you a link from mainstream news sources to the copious coverage of the crisis in Central America because - despite the fact that this has been a political issue since the moment Trump rode down the escalator - there is no copious coverage of the crisis in Central America.
There hasn’t even been coverage this week in the Times, the Washington Post or NPR of a governor of a state declaring that his troops are at the ready to fight Federal troops over a policy states have no right to enforce. (The three TV networks did have coverage.)
Hell, forget the “no right to enforce” part. A governor of one state is declaring that his police and state guard will fight the Federal border patrol or any other Federal troops in order to keep on killing desperate people who are willing to risk their lives to cross the border.
The last time state governments declared that they would ignore a Supreme Court ruling and fight Federal troops was in 1963, when Alabama Governor George Wallace stood on the steps of Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama and declared “Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.”
In response to Wallace, President Kennedy federalized the National Guard.
Which is, perversely, exactly what Greg Abbott wants President Biden to do.
Because in 2024, Abbott is betting that viral video of federalized troops standing off against Texas state police will energize the MAGA base, who are the ideological, if not biological, descendants of the hateful white people we all grew up watching in history class as they taunted Black people trying to go to school.
And Trump will be able to use such images to say, “Biden is sending in Federal troops to protect ILLEGALS, but they wouldn’t let me use the Insurrection Act to send troops to cities to protect God-fearing white business people against those BLM THUGS.”
This is especially clear if you consider that while Republican governors are throwing a fit about Biden’s border policies, Trump is telling Congressional Republicans not to pass a bill to fix the border because he wants to campaign on the issue.
But… Biden Sucks on the Border
If you’re an adherent of truth, Abbott’s stand makes no sense. Immigration rights advocates hate Biden’s border policies.
“Biden’s policies are very similar to Trump’s on immigration,” said Fatma Marouf, who used to run the immigration clinic at UNLV and now runs the immigration clinic at Texas A&M.
“In terms of seeking asylum,” Marouf added, “Biden has not been friendly toward immigrants.”
She noted that Biden renewed Title 42, a Trump-era rule that kept migrants out due to the COVID emergency. The rule is still in place, despite the fact that Biden declared the emergency over in April of last year.
Biden has even said he will shut down the border if Congress passes a bill to renew aid to Ukraine and address immigration.
The exception to Biden’s harsh immigration policy is the CBP One app. I’m sure you’re all familiar with that. It’s such a catchy and engaging name. Although you may have heard that the Biden Administration was using some sort of app to triage people before they hit the border.
According to CBS News, using statistics from Homeland Security, 422,000 migrants have entered the U.S. using this app.
Biden has also allowed migrants from four countries to have faster entry if they have sponsors in the U.S. Those countries are:
Venezuela - which has seen an outpouring of nearly 8 million people in the last few years, fleeing starvation and lack of access to health care;
Haiti - which seems to have devolved into anarchy since the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse;
Nicaragua - which is dealing with a human rights crisis like the one Trump wants to institute in the U.S.;
Cuba - from which the U.S. has been accepting immigrants since 1960 - immigrants that Republicans used to adore
About 340,000 people have come from those countries.
And about 3,600 people from other Central American countries have been allowed in under a family reunification program.
All of those people are known as Parole migrants. Which means they are in the U.S. on their own recognizance, and not in some hell-hole prison in Greg Abbott’s Texas.
Which, of course, is the reason that he and 24 of his weak-kneed brother and sister Republican governors are looking to start civil war over Biden’s policy. Immigrants just aren’t suffering enough. All these state leaders are betting that most Americans will agree with them. Or that the press just won’t tell most Americans what’s going on.
And Remember
The Federalist Society obtained a $1.6 billion donation from philanthropist Barre Seid in 2022. I wonder what they’re doing with it?
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I just visited my daughter in Texas last week. You wouldn't believe how many of them think their Gov is "doing the exactly right thing!" And how many I heard saying that they WANTED a "Civil War" ("just let them try and defeat Texas and take our guns") and also wanting to secede from the Union. At the same time, calling for Prayer and Pledge of Allegiance ("...under God"). Obviously haven't put it together in their heads that the Pledge call for "One Nation...INDIVISIBLE". How do you get through to these people???