(The Center Square) – Republican members of Congress from Texas say the state should ignore a U.S. Supreme Court ruling this week allowing Border Patrol agents to destroy Texas concertina wire barriers in an area near Eagle Pass, Texas, and “hold the line” to secure its border.
The 5-4 decision, with Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett siding with the court’s liberal wing, comes at a time when the president has made conflicting comments to reporters.
In response to a recent press inquiry, “Would you call the situation on the southern border a ‘crisis’?”, Biden replied, “No but I would say … we have to make major changes at the border. I’m prepared to make significant alterations with the negotiations going on.”
More recently he was asked if the border was secure and replied, “No, it isn’t. I haven’t believed it has been secure for ten years. I’ve said for the last ten years – give me the money,” he said, referring to Congress. Biden submitted a supplemental funding bill request asking for more funding for Border Patrol agents to process more illegal foreign nationals into the country instead of removing them or preventing illegal entry as required by law. Congress has not authorized the funding and many Americans have called on Congress to stop funding Biden policies, arguing if it doesn’t it’s complicit in creating the border crisis.
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told Fox News, the 5-4 Supreme Court decision “makes me angry.”
What makes him “even more angry is listening to [President] Joe Biden just flat out lie,” he said. “And he knows he’s lying, although actually given his mental condition, maybe he doesn’t know he’s lying. But anyone rational that was aware of the world around him would know that he was lying. He says, ‘the border has been secure for 10 years and just give me the money.’”
U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, the former White House physician serving presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, has repeatedly questioned Biden’s mental and physical health. Since July 2021, he has called for Biden to be removed under the 25th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, citing slurred speech, not appearing to know where he is, stumbling and other behavior.
In response to the latest conflict with the president, Jackson said, “HOLD THE LINE TEXAS. The Texas National Guard is doing what [President Joe Biden, [DHS Secretary Alejandro] Mayorkas, and ‘border czar’ [Vice President] Kamala [Harris] can’t – protecting and defending our country from INVASION! Texas has a constitutional right to defend its borders when the federal government fails to.”
Jackson has also multiple times called for Harris to be removed as “border czar” and supports Congress impeaching Mayorkas. The House is soon expected to impeach him.
Cruz argues Biden inherited a secure border from the Trump administration, saying, “we have made incredible progress securing the border.” But the president “deliberately, systematically dismantled” federal border security policies, facilitating “over 9.6 million” foreign nationals to illegally enter the country under his watch, he said. The Center Square first reported on more than 10 million illegal border crossers from January 1, 2021, through Sept. 30, 2023, including over 1.7 million gotaways.
Cruz also said Biden’s funding request is to process more foreign nationals who illegally enter the U.S. “faster, to move even more of them into every city in America. He wants to take that 9.6 million and make it 20 million, make it 30 million, make it 40 million.
“It is an invasion and Texas is bearing the brunt, but every community in America is paying the price.”
U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, has argued that Texas should ignore the Supreme Court ruling, arguing illegal border crossers are breaking into Texas. “[I]f someone’s breaking into your house, and the court says, ‘Oh, sorry. You can’t defend yourself.’ What do you tell the court? You tell the court to go to hell, you defend yourself and then figure it out later,” he told Fox News.
Roy also said that the federal government is constitutionally required to protects its citizens and “if the Supreme Court wants to ignore that truth, which a slim majority did, Texas still had the duty, Texas leaders still have the duty, to defend their people.”
U.S. Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, called on Texas to “hold the line,” saying, “The great State of Texas is doing everything it can to protect and defend not only Texas, but the rest of the country, from the invasion created by Joe Biden and his open-border policies. Hold the line.”
More officials have been referring to the border crisis as an invasion after 51 Texas counties have declared an invasion and expressed support for Texas sovereignty.
