Texas Gov. Greg Abbott received high praise from former President Donald Trump on Saturday amid a growing feud with the Biden administration over immigration.
Trump's comments come at a time the southern U.S. state and its 25 Republican backers find themselves at loggerheads with the Federal government.
The state is restricting the U.S. Border Patrol after the Supreme Court cleared the way for these federal agents to cut or remove the sharp metal barrier in a popular corridor for migrants illegally entering the U.S.
Earlier Friday, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt sent National Guard troops to Texas to help the state overcome issues on the U.S.-Mexico border, while 25 governors also expressed their support.
The move defied the U.S. Supreme Court and the Federal government in Washington and critics were quick to label the feud as overtures for civil war.
On Saturday, Trump's speech focused overwhelmingly on border security as he said Texas should be given full support in its measures to deter migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border.
"When I’m president, instead of trying to send Texas a restraining order, I will send them reinforcements," Trump told a crowd of supporters in Las Vegas, where he rallied on an indoor football field in a largely Latino neighborhood.
"Instead of fighting border states, I will use every resource tool and authority of the U.S. president to defend the United States of America from this horrible invasion that is taking place right now."
The former president is getting closer to securing the Republican presidential nomination, and his support among Hispanics has grown since he first ran in 2016.
On Saturday, he drove that point, drawing loud cheers when he claimed he was doing very well in that voter demographic.
The Republican candidate said Hispanic and Black families hurt the most from the arrival of migrants into the country and said President Joe Biden should not have ended restrictions implemented during the Trump administration to deter migration.
"I’ll get it solved and I’ll get it solved and start the process on day one – on day one, we will start that process," he said. "That’s why we’re going to win the record share of Latino votes."
The historic number of migrants arriving at the U.S. border with Mexico during Biden’s term is one of the main challenges of his reelection campaign.
Immigration was a top issue during Iowa’s Republican caucuses earlier this month, when Trump won. An AP VoteCast survey found about nine in 10 caucusgoers backed building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, with about seven in 10 expressing strong support for the idea.
Rob Williams, a 25-year-old voter who attended the Las Vegas rally, said he was glad Texas was defying the Biden administration over immigration.
"The good Texan people are stepping up to the plate, other states as well," he said. "They’re going to show the fight over there in Texas."
On Friday Oklahoma Gov. Stitt sent National Guard troops to Texas to help the state overcome border control problems on the U.S.-Mexico border.
"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 was in response to Trump's Thursday call for Republican-led states to band together to combat the illegal immigration problem along the southern border.
"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.
"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 last 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.
