Texas Strikes Back, and the Illegals Are Unhappy

The Lone Star State is fighting back against illegal immigration, but with no help from the Biden administration.

While we asserted last week that Joe Biden may have been waking up to the issue of illegal immigration, the state of Texas has been more proactive — much to the chagrin of those who believe just anyone should be allowed into our country.

Step one for Texas was its tactic of shifting the burden to other states and cities that claimed to be sanctuary jurisdictions, as we detailed a week ago. Unfortunately, the inflow was coming just as fast or even faster than the buses could beat tracks out of the state. So Texas has adopted another tactic at a popular border crossing — one that is upsetting would-be illegal immigrants. “We’re looking for Border Patrol!” one whined when confronted by a Texas National Guard officer. Apparently, they were seeking the free hall passes handed out by the Border Patrol and showed up at the wrong place.

Shelby Park is a recreation area by the Rio Grande in the town of Eagle Pass, just upriver and within sight of a major highway crossing. Its takeover by the Texas National Guard has many local residents flummoxed, but all the state is doing is that which the federal government is failing or refusing to do. As Texas Governor Greg Abbott notes, his state is “using every tool” at its disposal to address the invasion, with one exception. “The only thing that we’re not doing,” Abbott says, “is we’re not shooting people who come across the border because, of course, the Biden administration would charge us with murder.”

No, the blood at the border is all on Joe Biden’s hands.

Yet Texas was all but charged with murder in the media for a recent incident. “Texas officials” were initially blamed for hindering federal efforts that reportedly could have saved a mother and two children who were drowning, according to a story trumpeted all over media until it was learned that it wasn’t true. “The Justice Department said Border Patrol was notified by Mexican officials that the three drownings had already occurred when it asked Texas officials for permission to enter the area,” an update to the story sheepishly revealed. 

As National Review’s Becket Adams revealed, though, the federal government still took a parting shot: “‘It is impossible to say what might have happened if Border Patrol had had its former access to the area — including through its surveillance trucks that assisted in monitoring the area,’ the Justice Department said in a statement after it conceded the ‘physically barred’ narrative was false.”

Whatever spin the mainstream media has tried to put out, it’s not working. USA Today asked Rafael Collazo, the executive director of an immigrant advocate group, for his take. Collazo responded, “Democrats and advocates aren’t pushing aggressively enough to accuse Abbott of using people as political pawns.” He added that Democrats need “to have the courage to be honest with the American people and say the source of your economic stress is not undocumented refugees that are seeking asylum.”

But that narrative doesn’t work for two reasons. First, people remember a time before “economic stress” because it was only five years ago. Second, those same people can recall when border policies that the media deemed cruel and heartless worked to minimize the number of illegal crossings. As Rich Lowry points out at National Review, Joe Biden could end the problem this week if he determined it would assist in his reelection efforts.

States Lowry: “There is no reason Biden needs to wait on Republicans to try to constrain him into enforcing the law; he could start enforcing it himself. Or to be more specific, he doesn’t have to wait for Republicans to limit his power to parole illegal immigrants into the country; he could instantly start paroling fewer people on his own. Joe Biden’s border crisis, which he initiated immediately upon taking office and has allowed to reach historic levels the subsequent three years, is the starkest example in recent memory of a president engaging in wholly avoidable political self-harm.”

Perhaps the Chamber of Commerce types who need low- and semi-skilled workers, such as those who work in the construction, food processing, and hospitality industries, may be thrilled to be awash in prospective cheap, under-the-table labor, but the rest of us paying the tab aren’t sharing in that feeling of happiness. We have borders for a reason, and people are supposed to ask permission before they enter.

A final bit of bad news: The Supreme Court decided 5-4 yesterday that the Border Patrol can cut the razor wire installed on the border by Texas officials. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the Court’s left wing in upending one bit of Texas’s bid to stem the crisis. The Biden administration made an emergency request to the Court, arguing that Texas was — get this — preventing the Border Patrol from doing its duty. That duty, last we checked, was to keep illegals from entering the country.

As The Babylon Bee accurately put it, “Supreme Court Rules It’s Illegal For National Guard To Guard Nation.”

Congress is working with the Biden administration on a deal regarding border security, but Senator Marco Rubio asked the exit question: “How can there be a ‘border security deal’ with a Biden Administration that just went all the way to the Supreme Court to stop border security?”