The Governor of Oklahoma, Kevin Stitt, sent National Guard troops to Texas to help the state overcome border control problems on the U.S.-Mexico border, amid a threat of civil war, as 25 governors expressed their support to Texas governor against the Biden administration.
"This is just common sense. In Texas, there's 28 ports of entry and it's already a federal law that it's illegal to enter anywhere but those points of entry," Stitt said in an interview with Fox News.
The move comes after former President Donald Trump on Thursday called for Republican-led states to band together to combat the illegal immigration problem along the southern border, an issue Republicans have said that President Joe Biden is failing to handle properly.
"We encourage all willing States to deploy their guards to Texas to prevent the entry of Illegals, and to remove them back across the Border," Trump said, citing the "invasion" of migrants coming into the U.S.
After Trump's plea for assistance, Republican governors from 25 states (half of the 50 states) pledged their support to Texas.
"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," the Republican Governors Association said in a statement. "We do it in part because the Biden Administration is refusing to enforce immigration laws already on the books and is illegally allowing mass parole across America of migrants who entered our country illegally."
With Trump and his Republican governor counterparts basically drawing the line in the sand in a faceoff with the Biden administration, many critics have suggested this could be a civil war in the making.
Stitt alluded to that suggestion making reference that there is a "powder keg worth of tension" regarding the border issues in Texas.
"And so the fact that the federal government, Biden, is cutting the razor wire, it just makes no sense at all," said the Oklahoma governor. "So, yes, we have the right to defend our country against invasion. And what else would you call it if you've got 6 million people coming through illegally?"
Stitt had previously sent the Oklahoma National Guard to help with the illegal immigration problems in Texas. Virginia's National Guard was also sent to Texas last year to help with the border crisis.
Trump's call for Republican-led states to pledge allegiance to Texas came amid calls from that state's Democratic leaders asking the Biden administration to federalize the Texas National Guard in order to prevent them from installing more barbed wire fencing, according to multiple media outlets. The Supreme Court ruled that the federal government's constitutional power superseded the state's power to remove barbed wire along the southern border.
This game of cat and mouse continued to fester after the Department of Justice sued Texas for its tactics to keep immigrants from illegally entering the U.S., including using floating river barriers and putting up barbed wire barricades. Despite the US Border Patrol being instructed to take down the barbed wire, the Texas National Guard continued to install more.
"The authors of the U.S. Constitution made clear that in times like this, states have a right of self-defense," said the Republican Governors Association. "Because the Biden Administration has abdicated its constitutional compact duties to the states, Texas has every legal justification to protect the sovereignty of our states and our nation."
The U.S. Supreme Court voted Monday to let the Biden administration remove concertina wire border barriers that Texas erected to fight illegal immigration from Mexico – a hot button issue in this election year.
Abbott has accused Biden of "deliberate inaction" as record numbers of Central Americans and people of other nationalities have streamed across the U.S.-Mexico border in recent months.
In December a federal appeals court barred the Biden government from removing the concertina wire barrier from the banks of the Rio Grande near the town of Eagle Pass, except in case of medical emergency.
This month the Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to remove this injunction in an emergency application while the court considers the full merits of the case.
The court voted 5-4 Monday, including the support of Chief Justice John Roberts, to side with the Biden administration.
Neither side gave reasons for their vote, which is common when the court decides on emergency petitions.
Abbott has made national headlines by bussing immigrants to cities seen as traditionally liberal, such as New York, as part of his campaign to draw attention to what he calls Biden's failed border policy.
The Texas National Guard seized control Jan. 11 of a park in Eagle Pass that lies along the Rio Grande, a move that heightened tensions with the Biden administration.
The Justice Department has accused the governor of preventing federal border agents from doing their job by denying them access to the border, even in the event of an emergency, along a 2.3 mile (3.7 kilometers) stretch of the river. But Texas authorities reject this allegation.
