Texas violates Supreme Court’s ruling on Southern Border

Greg Abbott is in his third term as Texas’ Governor. Abbott, a Republican, has campaigned on border security throughout his three gubernatorial elections, with it being one of the main policies of his Governorship. 

In March of 2021 Abbott launched ‘Operation Lone Star’ which sent the Texas National Guard to the Texas-Mexican border, further militarizing the border. Since then Abbott’s border-centric mindset has only grown, and ‘Operation Lone Star’ has expanded.

In mid-October Abbott ordered the laying of miles of concertina wire, a coiled wire contained in razor blades along the Rio Grande river, which forms the US-Mexican border. This started a long string of legal battles between the federal government and the state of Texas.

The Department of Homeland Security cut portions of the wire. In response, Texas sued the Federal Government. After a series of trials and appeals the case reached the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the federal government had the right to remove the concertina wire.

Regardless of your political views on the issue of immigration, the Supreme Court, which has been dominated by a conservative majority, ruled in favor of the federal government. Does that not speak volumes?

On January 24, two days after the Supreme Court’s ruling Abbott responded via letter. In his letter Abbott wrote, “The federal government has broken the compact between the United States and the States.” 

This rhetoric echoes that of Texas’ declaration of secession passed in 1861, where Texas proclaimed its secession from the Union and joining of the Confederate States of America, the Civil War had begun. 

Republican governors across the country, including Virginia’s Governor, Glenn Youngkin have released statements saying that they stand by Abbott in his defiance of the Supreme Court. Some Texans have called for a referendum, a vote taken to the public, to declare Texas’ secession from the Union once more. 

Threats of a Second American Civil War may be shallow, but Abbott’s blatant ignorance to the Supreme Court’s ruling must be taken seriously. 

The Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in the case of Brown v. Board of Education made the idea of “Separate but equal” illegal. Three years later the Governor of Arkansas defied the Supreme Court by using Arkansas’ National Guard to block African American students. President Dwight D. Eisenhower responded by federalizing the National Guard, forcing Arkansas to abide by the Supreme Court’s ruling and to allow the ‘Little Rock Nine’ into school.

Texas Representative, Joaquin Castro, among others, have implored Joe Biden to federalize the Texas National Guard to compel Texas to abide by the Supreme Court’s ruling. 

Not only did Abbott rebuke the Supreme Court, he also acted directly against it. He has ordered the Texas National Guard to continue putting up concertina wire and to install floating barriers in the Rio Grande despite the Department of Homeland Security ordering them not to, having been backed by the Supreme Court. 

Most of this back and forth between the federal government and Texas has been set in Eagle Pass, a small Texan border town of 28,000. In this town federal agents and Texan politicians have been in a standoff. 

This contention between the United States and Texas is ongoing.