Buoys and barbed wire: why Texas authorities rebelled against Biden

The migration crisis on the southern border of the United States has become especially acute in Texas, where authorities do not accept what they consider to be too lenient policies of the federal authorities towards illegal migrants. The situation is aggravated by the inability of Democrats and Republicans in Washington to agree on a new border security regime. However, you shouldn’t expect shootouts between the feds and the Texas National Guard or attempts to secede from the United States, says political scientist and author of the One Big Union Telegram channel Ian Veselov.

Relations between Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott and federal authorities began to deteriorate after Joe Biden took office. While the new administration for a time continued Donald Trump's policies to strengthen security at the Mexican border, Biden's presidency saw a record increase in illegal migration. Over the past three years, more than 6.3 million people have been detained while crossing the southern border of the United States, of which about 2.4 million remain in the United States, awaiting a decision on their fate.

 

In December 2023, the number of border crossings reached almost 10,000 per day.

Because Texas has the longest border with Mexico, the state is hit hardest by the massive influx of migrants. However, not all stereotypes associated with migration are confirmed by statistics: for example, border cities are the safest in the country in terms of crime rates. Nevertheless, for Texas the problem has become almost the main one.

Contrary to Washington's position, Texas lawmakers passed legislation that criminalized illegal border crossings in Texas and allowed state courts—not just federal immigration courts—to decide deportations.

In addition, state authorities bused nearly 100,000 migrants to California, New York and other Democratic states.

Blaming Biden for his reluctance to solve the problem, Governor Abbott launched Operation Lone Star and sent 20,000 National Guardsmen and police officers to patrol the border and detain illegal migrants. Authorities have reported hundreds of thousands of arrests and major drug seizures, but critics say the operation, which has already cost the Texas budget more than $10 billion, is not very effective.

Washington also did not like the decision by Texas authorities in 2021 to install floating buoys and barbed wire fences on the border Rio Grande River.

This led to casualties among migrants who drowned trying to cross the river, their number is estimated at 858 in 2022 alone.

And federal border guards were not always able to intervene in the situation due to the refusal of Texas security forces to let them through to the barriers. Since protecting the border and regulating migration is the prerogative of the federal government, border guards at some point began to dismantle the barbed wire, but Texas authorities sued them. The case reached the Supreme Court, which sided with the federal authorities.

But since the court did not justify its decision, Texas authorities interpreted it in their own way, considering that the court allowed the dismantling of the barriers, but did not prohibit their installation again, so they continued to place them on the border . And Governor Abbott issued a statement accusing the Biden administration of refusing to enforce federal immigration laws and protect states from invading migrants and Mexican drug cartels. According to him, the state has the right to self-defense and therefore will take the necessary measures for this.

Abbott has already been supported by 25 Republican governors , and 14 of them sent parts of their National Guard to help Texas . In response, Democrats accuse Texas of insubordination and call on Biden to place the National Guard under his control. The law allows this to be done as a last resort, and some presidents have subdued National Guardsmen in states where there were mass unrest or the authorities refused to comply with the decision of the Supreme Court. But for now, such a step on the part of the president seems unlikely, as does  a large-scale military confrontation between federal authorities and Texas security forces .

Republic of Texas?

Amid this confrontation, calls began to be made for the state to secede. Texas does have a pro-secession Texas Nationalist Movement, but it remains fairly marginal, although it has been gaining momentum in recent years. In 2022, the local Republican Party convention included a call on the Legislature to hold a referendum on state secession. A similar bill was indeed introduced in the local legislature, but it was not considered.

Unable to independently initiate a referendum, Texas separatists tried to conduct a kind of poll within the framework of the Republican Party primaries. And although it would not have legal force, they hoped that it would win over Republican legislators, who have a majority in the Texas Legislature. However, in December 2023, the party leadership refused to conduct a survey, citing the unreliability of the collected signatures and the late deadline for their submission.

However, there is no legal mechanism for Texas or any other state to secede from the United States.

Back in 1868, the Supreme Court ruled that there was no constitutional right for states to secede, and such decisions by local authorities or popular referendums would not be valid. In the case of Texas, some independence supporters point to the 1845 resolution that brought the then-independent Republic of Texas into the United States. But it only says that Texas has the right to create no more than four new states on its territory and this has nothing to do with independence.

Blocked reform

Immigration reform, which senators are discussing in Washington, could ease the problem on the southern border.

The problem is “packed” into one bill along with the issues of providing military assistance to Ukraine, Israel and other countries.

Finding itself in a vulnerable position, the White House agreed to significant concessions, including speeding up the deportation process, tightening conditions for obtaining asylum and the regime of border crossings that are supposed to be closed if the number of arrests for illegal border crossings exceeds a certain threshold.

But it seems that this deal, like repeated attempts at reform in this area over the past 20 years, will not be implemented. House Speaker Mike Johnson and his conservative colleagues opposed it, demanding more radical measures. But most importantly, Donald Trump, who has practically secured the nomination as the Republican presidential candidate, said that Republicans should not make a deal with Democrats unless they get everything they demand. Following Trump, conservative Republicans in the Senate began to bury the reform.

Republicans fear that any deal with Biden would leave them unable to criticize the president over the refugee crisis, as the parties would then share responsibility for what's happening at the border.

At a closed meeting with colleagues in the faction, the leader of the Senate Republicans, Mitch McConnell, directly said that the adoption of immigration reform now would prevent the election of Trump.

Therefore, it is very likely that negotiations on migration reform will fail, and the confrontation on the border will continue at least until the November presidential and congressional elections.