In its coverage of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s recent trip to the White House, Fox News acknowledged the shift on display. Where the Biden administration threw open our borders, and fought Texas’s attempts to enforce the law, the Trump administration is embracing Abbott’s actions.
Abbott’s deputizing the Texas National Guard to help the Border Patrol is just the next logical step. It’s not time for Texas to stand down; it’s time for other states to step up.
“It would be hard to find another governor who has done more to support, and help implement and endorse, Trump’s hardline border security and immigration agenda,” Fox reported. “Texas, under Abbott’s leadership, has spent billions of dollars on border security the past couple of years under Operation Lone Star.”
Now, Texas has a partner in the Oval Office who is also interested in securing the border and protecting U.S. citizens.
“And this week, Abbott, in an unprecedented move, gave Texas National Guard soldiers the power to arrest undocumented immigrants in coordination with U.S. Customs and Border Protection,” Fox continued.
President Donald Trump’s response? “He’s doing a great job. He’s doing a phenomenal job, but now you’re going to have a partner that’s going to work with you,” Trump said about Gov. Abbott.
Of course, Abbott’s decision to deputize the National Guard came under fire from the party of open borders.
“It’s likely to lead to harassment and racial profiling of Mexican Americans and other Hispanics in South Texas and the border region,” claimed Texas Democratic Congressman Joaquin Castro.
Here’s the reality: The Biden administration’s efforts to undermine the Rule of Law and our immigration rules have left the Border Patrol undermanned and underfunded. Abbott’s actions are lawful—troops have been used at the border for decades.
“Military forces have been on the border continuously since the establishment of JTF-6 in 1989 to help combat drug smuggling,” the Center for Strategic and International Studies explains. “The levels have varied depending on the perceived level of need, the availability of forces, and the politics of immigration but continued in both Republican and Democratic administrations.”
Some blue states and blue-run cities say they’ll remain “sanctuaries” for illegal immigrants, including violent criminals.
As one Oregon state representative claims, “Our immigrant neighbors are crucial to the resilience and rich fabric of our community. This is just another, disgusting, chaos-generating attack on my community by a heartless administration. We will robustly challenge this cruel directive with every tool at our disposal.”
The governor of New Jersey famously claimed to be housing an illegal immigrant in a garage apartment, and “good luck to the feds coming in to try to get her.”
Not everyone is so recalcitrant. Out in Nevada, Attorney General Aaron Ford, a gubernatorial hopeful, once sponsored legislation to make Nevada a sanctuary state. Now he supports enforcing the law.
“Keeping our communities safe is not a controversial statement,” Ford told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “It is my job, and I intend to do that, and I support policies that do that.”
Ford, a Democrat, knows he must change his tune on the border. Not only did President Trump win Nevada by three points, the state now has more registered Republicans than Democrats.
What other sanctuary states and cities are missing is this great political sea-change. President Trump was very clear in what he was running on—and securing the border was at the top of his list, along with mass deportations of immigrants who are here illegally. And that’s precisely what they voted for.
Those sanctuary states and cities also can’t afford the illegal immigration crisis brought about by the Biden administration; even while President Joe Biden was in office, New York, Chicago and Denver were pleading for federal funds to help them pay for their own irresponsible policies.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has shown how states can come alongside and assist the federal government in this task. Many, like Florida, Tennessee and South Dakota, have already sent their own National Guard troops to support Texas. It’s time for the other states to step up and enforce the law.