After Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott declared a special clause of the U.S. Constitution to protect its southern border, the state’s Military Department sent ten armored personal carriers along the state’s border with Mexico to control illegal activity in the region.
“Your sustained dereliction of duty compels Texas to invoke the powers reserved in Article I, § 10, Clause 3, which represents ‘an acknowledgement of the States’ sovereign interest in protecting their borders,’” Gov. Abbott wrote to President Biden last month declaring the emergency.
The federal government’s FAILURE to secure our border has forced Texas to protect its own territory against invasion by the Mexican drug cartels & mass illegal immigration.
Read my full letter to Biden ⬇️ https://t.co/lc0gYHlIm7
— Gov. Greg Abbott (@GovAbbott) November 16, 2022
Gov. Abbott first deployed National Guard troops to the border in March 2021. The deployment of these troops was part of a state-sponsored mission called Operation Lone Star. About 5,100 troops are now deployed at the border to apprehend illegal migrants and criminal activity taking place between the ports of entry. These troops now have the authority to arrest illegal migrants and are working closely with the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Earlier in May, troops began using inflatable boats for patrolling the Rio Grande, which allowed the National Guard to reduce the members deployed on the border to roughly 10,000 troops. The lone star had to spend more than $1.2 billion of taxpayer funds in the fiscal year 2022 alone for this operation.
Officials said in a Thursday Press conference that the “primary use of these vehicles will be to enhance protection for our forces.”
The M113 armored personal carriers, primarily designed with an aluminum hull for lighter transportation, are intended to protect troops against small arms fire and were first used by the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War.
The state’s military department says that the increase in border security is part of the state’s initiative as the Biden administration is set to lift the Trump-era Title 52 policy which “could lead to a massive influx of illegal immigrants allowing criminals to further exploit gaps where federal authorities are inundated with migrant processing.”
The policy allowed U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents to send the illegal migrants back across the border if they had concerns about spreading the Coronavirus. The policy is responsible for sending back millions of illegal migrants who attempted to cross the southern border.
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