Tag Archives: Texas Governor Greg Abbott

Creating An Unnecessary Constitutional Crisis

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On Thursday, John Hinderaker at Power Line Blog posted an article about the crisis at the southern border. There has been a crisis at our southern border since day one of the Biden administration when President Biden undid some of the procedures President Trump had put in place to deal with illegal immigrants. I am not sure why this is finally being addressed after three years, but I am glad that someone is taking action. It is very possible that it is finally being addressed because of the impact moving the illegal aliens around the country has had on Democrat-controlled cities. I am always suspicious of the timing of crises–in recent years they have become political tools.

John Hinderaker reports:

The Biden Administration has dealt a devastating blow to America by opening up the southern border to all comers. The influx of illegals threatens our national security and our economy, and it has placed an intolerable burden on the border states. How intolerable, is demonstrated by the panic that seizes blue cities when they are faced with a tiny fraction of the burden suffered by communities near the open border.

Joe Biden’s border policy is unconstitutional. Under Article II, his most fundamental duty as president is to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” Biden has not faithfully executed our immigration laws; rather, he has deliberately sabotaged and negated them. This is an impeachable offense, but what to do in the meantime?

In Texas, a constitutional crisis may be brewing. Governor Greg Abbott, having had enough of the scofflaw Biden Administration, had fencing erected along the border to discourage illegal migration. Biden, determined to illegally undermine our country, directed that the fencing be torn down so that more illegals can pour in. The case reached the Supreme Court, which voted 5-4 to overturn a Court of Appeals decision that enjoined federal border agents from cutting the wire. So for now, the Court has the feds back in control.

The article includes a memo written by Texas Governor Greg Abbott stating that it is the responsibility of the federal government to enforce the border. It also includes screenshots of tweets by other governors supporting Governor Abbott.

The article concludes>

Sarah Hoyt says that Oklahoma, Montana, Virginia, Arkansas, West Virginia, Louisiana and Idaho have also lined up behind Texas. And, she reports, the entire Republican Governors Association has signed a letter supporting Abbott. So far, no Democrats. Fine: let’s let sovereignty be the issue on which the 2024 election turns.

I haven’t studied the constitutional issues raised by this crisis in any detail. For the moment, I would simply say, with Justice Robert Jackson, that the Constitution is not a suicide pact. No sane interpretation of the relevant constitutional provisions could conclude that a scofflaw president, by violating federal law and betraying his oath of office, can disable the states, who came together to form the federal government in the first place, from defending themselves against foreign invasion.

A nation without borders is no longer a nation. The battle has been joined. Let’s fight it out.

When The Shoe Is On The Other Foot

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I didn’t hear a lot of complaints from New York City when the southern towns of Texas were being overrun by illegal immigrants. Now that Texas and Florida are shipping those illegal immigrants north to the self-proclaimed ‘sanctuary cities,” those cities are suddenly facing the consequences of declaring themselves sanctuary cities. On Friday, The Daily Caller posted an article about how New York City is dealing with being a sanctuary city.

The article notes:

Democrat New York City Mayor Eric Adams declared a “state of emergency” Friday to manage the influx of illegal migrants bused from the southern border to the Big Apple.

Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott began busing illegal migrants to New York City in August and, since then, the city has received around 17,000 illegal migrants, Adams said. Adams’ declaration will allow city agencies to construct “humanitarian relief centers” to address the surge.

…Abbott’s office called Adams “an absolute hypocrite” for his decision in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“In a city with a population of over 8 million, he’s claiming an emergency for just over 3,100 migrants being bused into his self-declared sanctuary city,” Abbott spokeswoman Renae Eze told the DCNF. “That’s not even 1% of the population of New York City.”

The Texas Department of Public Safety posted the following statistics:

According to DHS status indicators, over 382,000 criminal aliens have been booked into local Texas jails between June 1, 2011, and September 30, 2022, of which over 263,000 were classified as illegal aliens by DHS.

Between June 1, 2011, and September 30, 2022, these 263,000 illegal aliens were charged with more than 442,000 criminal offenses which included arrests for 820 homicide charges; 53,672 assault charges; 8,162 burglary charges; 53,687 drug charges; 856 kidnapping charges; 21,511 theft charges; 34,571 obstructing police charges; 2,480 robbery charges; 5,600 sexual assault charges; 6,584 sexual offense charges; and 5,087 weapon charges. DPS criminal history records reflect those criminal charges have thus far resulted in over 164,000 convictions including 391 homicide convictions; 20,131 assault convictions; 4,200 burglary convictions; 23,008 drug convictions; 272 kidnapping convictions; 8,767 theft convictions; 14,330 obstructing police convictions; 1,439 robbery convictions; 2,653 sexual assault convictions; 3,106 sexual offense convictions; and 1,769 weapon convictions.

Northern states and northern cities didn’t really care about illegal immigration until is showed up on their doorsteps. Maybe that will be the key to ending the Biden-administration-approved invasion of our country.

When The Problem Comes Home

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On Friday, Power Line Blog posted an article about Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s shipping of illegal aliens to Martha’s Vineyard. Martha’s Vineyard is a beautiful place, and I am sure that the immigrants were glad to land there. Unfortunately, the people who live on Martha’s Vineyard were not particularly excited to see the illegal aliens.

The article reports:

The strategy of Greg Abbott and others to send illegal aliens to sanctuary cities around the country was a stroke of genius. Not that it was original: for at least the last five or six years, a friend has been emailing me to the effect that illegals should be sent to Marin County, Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco mansion, and, above all, Martha’s Vineyard. That, he said, would bring the open border problem to a screeching halt.

And it may. Ron DeSantis’s master stroke of sending two planeloads of aliens to Martha’s Vineyard has made liberal heads explode. The irony is evident to everyone. These places are “sanctuaries” for illegal aliens, but if they actually see a few of them they panic. Their yards boast “All Are Welcome Here” signs, but it turns out that some are more welcome than others.

Rasmussen finds that most people approve of Governor Abbott’s shipping illegals to sanctuary cities like Chicago and Washington, D.C., by 52% to 36%. Those 36% are diehard Democrats who think it is fine for Texas to try to deal with one million aliens, but an outrage if a liberal city has to take on a few hundred.

Unlike most Americans, liberals don’t appreciate the irony. Their reaction has been priceless.

The meme below is posted at the bottom of the article:

The article concludes:

Members of the West Tisbury Select Board were told about the unexpected development during a Wednesday night meeting at which Town Administrator Jennifer Rand said she’d been receiving “furious texts” from residents, the MV Times reported.

I’ll bet they were furious! Not just anyone can live on Martha’s Vineyard. Maybe the Vineyard folks can ship the unwanted illegal aliens to a more downscale location, like the Hamptons. Or else the illegal immigrants, of whom there are only around 50, could all stay at Barack Obama’s $12 million estate. There is plenty of room there, and I understand his mansion has 10 bathrooms. That would be more than enough. But don’t hold your breath.

In all seriousness, if there is anything that could motivate Democrats to accept United States sovereignty, this is probably it.

UPDATE: I forgot to add that Governor Abbott also bused around 100 illegals to Kamala Harris’s Washington, D.C., residence, the Naval Observatory. This was in response to Harris’s absurd claim that the southern border is “secure.” No way, say the illegals themselves: the border is “open!” Let’s have more of this, until the Democrats say “Uncle.”

UPDATE: Will the Obamas come through for their illegal friends? Some are doubtful:

The Future If The Extreme Environmentalists Get Their Way

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On Tuesday, The Daily Caller reported that wind power in Texas has again failed to help Texans deal with extreme weather.

The article reports:

Wind power is failing Texas during a record-setting heat wave with turbines producing only 8% of their potential energy output, according to The Dallas Morning News.

Energy use is skyrocketing as Texans are desperate to cool their homes due to triple-digit temperatures across the state, which reached 108 degrees Fahrenheit in Waco on Saturday, exceeding the previous record set in 1917 by 4 degrees, according to The Guardian. However, wind speeds remain low, neutering Texas’ collection of wind farms as the electrical grid struggles to cope with soaring demand, according to The Dallas Morning News

The article concludes:

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) warned of potential blackouts relating to the grid’s failure to keep up with demands and asked Texans to slash their energy use on Monday.

The company, which accounts for 90% of the state’s power supply, and Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott were criticized following severe winter storms that resulted in hundreds of deaths and left millions without power in February 2021.

“After the big freeze and blackout in 2017, the Texas Legislature and governor have taken only half-hearted and ineffective steps to address the causes of the Texas grid’s over-dependence on unreliable and intermittent wind power,” Ebell said.

ERCOT told the DCNF that it “expects sufficient generation to meet forecasted demand.”

The problem with wind power is that the wind does not blow 24/7. The problem with solar power is that the sun does not shine 24/7. In both cases, you need a reliable backup energy source–generally fossil fuel or massive storage batteries. The extreme environmentalists also choose to overlook the fact that although the blades on wind turbines have a projected lifespan of 20-25 years, the actual data shows that they generally do not last 20 years (article here). They are very large and are quickly filling up our landfills. There is far more pollution going on with windmill blades and old solar panels than there is with modern techniques using fossil fuels.

Finally!

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On July 7th, The Daily Caller reported that Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed an executive order allowing the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) and the Texas National Guard to arrest and return illegal migrants to the border. That is the proper way to secure a border.

The article reports:

“While President Biden refuses to do his job and enforce the immigration laws enacted by Congress, the State of Texas is once again stepping up and taking unprecedented action to protect Americans and secure our southern border. The cartels have become emboldened and enriched by President Biden’s open border policies, smuggling in record numbers of people, weapons, and deadly drugs like fentanyl,” Abbott said in a statement.

The article concludes:

Abbott cited Article 4 Section 4 of the Constitution, which states “‘[t]he United States . . . shall protect each [State in this Union] against Invasion,” but his office didn’t respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s inquiry on whether he will similarly declare an invasion.

Neither the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) nor did Customs and Border Protection (CBP) respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.

Whether anyone chooses to declare it or not, this is an invasion. No country can reasonably expect to assimilate this number of people coming into the country who speak a different language and have a different culture. I fear that within the next five years, America will no longer be recognizable as America. Remember, that to become a citizen you have to take a citizenship test that talks about our founding documents. People who come into our country illegally do not have to take that test. When you combine that with the fact that most of our school children are not taught the founding documents, the future outlook for America is not good. People will not work to preserve what they don’t know.

Solving National Problems At The State Level

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Our southern border is a mess, and it is not getting any better. When Title 42 officially expires effective May 23, the southern border will become even more of a mess. This has been a nightmare for border states.

On Sunday, The Epoch Times posted an article about one state’s efforts to deal with the current and coming border crisis.

The article reports:

Gov. Greg Abbott late Friday signed his fourth memorandum of understanding in three days with another Mexican governor as part of his commitment to secure Texas’ shared border with Mexico.

The signing came as a fourth bus transporting illegal immigrants released by the Biden administration into Texas reached Washington, arriving Saturday morning.

Abbott met Friday with Tamaulipas Gov. Francisco García Cabeza de Vaca in Weslaco, Texas. They signed a memorandum of understanding designed to prevent illegal immigration from Mexico to Texas and improve the flow of commercial traffic across the international bridge.

The agreements were reached within a week of Abbott ordering enhanced inspections of commercial vehicles as part of the state’s expanded border security efforts through Operation Lone Star. The inspections led to major backlogs, protests by Mexican commercial truck drivers, cartel operatives setting fire to vehicles, and commercial traffic being ground to a halt.

Despite criticism of Abbott’s plan, within a week, an agreement was reached with four Mexican governors in states where international bridges connect Texas and Mexico.

“Border governors can achieve results when we work together and put the safety of our constituents first,” Abbott said. “I am grateful for the partnership of Governor Cabeza de Vaca as we work to secure our border.”

Because Cabeza de Vaca presented such a detailed plan to secure the border, Abbott said the Texas Department of Public Safety would return to its previous strategy of randomly searching commercial vehicles coming through ports of entry.

“While President [Joe] Biden ignores the ongoing crisis at the border, the state of Texas will continue to work with heads of state in Mexico to further strengthen our comprehensive border strategy,” he said.

The Preamble of the United States Constitution states:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Our present administration is not living up to that ideal. It is the responsibility of our government to secure our borders. Until the government does what it is supposed to, the states will be obligated to protect themselves from the flood of illegals attempting to enter America.

Fighting Back Against Bad Laws

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On April 8, I posted an article about Texas Governor Greg Abbot’s plan to charter buses to transport illegal immigrants to Washington, D.C. Evidently the prospect of having a bunch of illegal immigrants dropped off in their front yard is having some impact on Washington.

Yesterday The Western Journal reported:

In the Texas tradition of showdowns, Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott last week told the federal government that he was ready, willing and able to bus every illegal immigrant dropped in a Texas town straight to Washington, D.C.

Somebody blinked, and it was not Abbott, according to new reports.

Late last week, the Texas Division of Emergency Management sent buses to the communities that have been targeted by the Biden administration as dropping-off points for illegal immigrants once border facilities are overwhelmed.

Officials found something had changed since Abbott sounded off.

“In the last 24 hours, TDEM has dispatched buses to areas where communities have expressed concerns about the federal government dropping off migrants and has the capability to send as many as is necessary to fulfill the requests from mayors and county judges,” said Seth Christensen, chief of media and communications for TDEM, according to the Daily Mail.

“From the [Rio Grande Valley] to Terrell County, a large majority of the communities that originally reached out for support through this operation have now said that the federal government has stopped dropping migrants in their towns since the governor’s announcement on Wednesday,” he said.

I hate to be cynical (but sometimes I am good at it), but it seems to me that Washington really doesn’t care what is happening on our southern border as long as it doesn’t affect them.

The article concludes:

On Monday, Abbott met with the Texas Border Sheriffs Coalition in El Paso and indicated he has no plans to back down.

“Texans demand and deserve an aggressive, comprehensive strategy to secure our border — not President Biden’s lackluster leadership,” Abbott said in a statement.

“As the federal government continues to roll back commonsense policies that once kept our communities safe, our local law enforcement has stepped up to protect Texans from dangerous criminals, deadly drugs and illegal contraband flooding into the Lone Star State.”

We need more governors like Governor Abbot on our southern border. If the political class in Washington thought that the border crisis would directly impact their lives, I suspect they might be willing to deal it. Until the border crisis directly impacts Washington, our ruling class will blindly follow President Biden over a cliff.

How To Get The Attention Of Washington, D.C.

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On Wednesday, The Conservative Review reported that Texas Governor Greg Abbot has stated that he was going to have charter buses ship illegal aliens to Washington D.C. and drop them off at the steps of the U.S. Capitol.

The article reports:

Abbott made the comments at a media briefing announcing the steps his administration would take to respond to the Biden administration rescinding Title 42 and the expected massive wave of illegal immigrants. 

“To help local officials whose communities are being overwhelmed by hordes of illegal immigrants who are being dropped off by the Biden administration, Texas is providing charter buses to send these illegal aliens who have been dropped off by the Biden administration to Washington, D.C.,” said Abbott.

“We are sending them to the United States Capitol where the Biden Administration will be able to more immediately address the needs of the people that they’re allowing to come across our border,” he added.

Abbott said he was ordering the Texas Division of Emergency Management to operate the project.

State officials said they were ready to activate up to 900 charter buses, according to Fox News reporter Bill Melugin.

Title 42 was a controversial policy put in place under the Trump administration in response to the threat of coronavirus infections among the illegal immigrant community. Experts worry that without the policy, hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants and refugee applicants would flood over the U.S.-Mexico border.

Washington, D.C., has been deaf to the cries of the border states concerning the problems caused by the surge of illegal immigrants the Biden administration (with the help of Congress) has encouraged to come to America. The Biden administration has shipped thousands of illegals all over the country without providing any means or financial aid to care for the influx of people who generally arrive with nothing. I firmly agree with Governor Abbot’s idea of bringing the problem to those who caused it in the hope that they will look for a solution.

The Price We Are Paying At The Gas Pump

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The year 2020 was a good year for American drivers. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the price of a gallon of gasoline at the pump was $2.64 in January 2020, dropped to $1.94 in April, and ended the year at $2.29. The website lists the current cost of a gallon of gasoline at $3.50. That’s a $12 increase in cost every time I put 10 gallons of gasoline in my car. If you are commuting to work, that adds up fast. So how does the Biden administration feel about this significant increase in the cost of gasoline? The Epoch Times posted an article today that answers that question.

The article reports:

When he announced last week that he would release more oil from the American Strategic Petroleum Reserve, President Joe Biden told the American people he is doing everything possible to bring down gas prices at the pump.

That’s a lie. This administration and the climate change crazies have declared war on American energy.

They want high oil and gas prices. The Biden master plan is for American oil and gas production and consumption to go to zero over the next 15 to 20 years. How do you achieve that goal? By making oil and gas so expensive and so unavailable that Americans are forced to use alternatives.

In other words, the fact that gasoline is roughly $1.25 more expensive per gallon today under Biden than it was a year ago under former President Donald Trump didn’t happen by accident. This was not a result of a natural disaster, such as a hurricane, that could knock out our oil facilities. This was by design.

The left believes that they can change the temperature of the planet by forcing American energy companies to produce less oil and to force Americans to use less of it. How do you get people to buy less of something? You raise its price. This is basic high-school introductory economics.

The article concludes:

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said it well in August that Texas “can easily produce that oil” if Biden “will just stay out of the way.”

He won’t.

The Biden administration strategy is to force-feed the American economy expensive, unreliable, and made-in-China wind and solar energy. His $3 trillion Build Back Better bill would dole out more than $500 billion of taxpayer dollars to the wind, solar, and electric vehicle industry to break the back of oil and gas production. If this energy source is so efficient, why does it need a half trillion dollars of your and my money?

Meanwhile, nearly every Biden policy has been deliberately aimed at killing U.S. oil and gas production—from killing the Keystone XL pipeline to trying to shut down other existing natural gas pipelines in the Midwest (Home heating costs are going way up this winter.) to shutting down much of Alaska oil production to new Environmental Protection Agency rules making it very difficult and expensive to drill here in America. He is also preventing the mining of American coal, which is still one of the dominant sources of electric power around the world. He also wants to raise taxes on the oil and gas industry.

Now, let’s be honest. Do any of these policies suggest that Biden and his liberal friends in the green-energy movement want to keep oil and gas prices low? If you answer yes to that, you probably believe that Al Gore invented the internet.

Elections have consequences.

The Problems With The Lack Of Border Enforcement

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Just the News recently reported (updated yesterday) that the Biden administration has lost track of 40% of the more than 114,000 unaccompanied children who entered the U.S. illegally. Great. Yesterday Breitbart reported that more than 16,000 migrants who tested positive for COVID-19 while in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody were released into the United States.

Just the News reports:

So far this year, unaccompanied minors arriving at the border have hit record numbers.  In June, there were 15,234 encounters with unaccompanied children, in July, 18,958 encounters, and in August, there were 18,847 encounters, according to Customs and Border Patrol data.

Once processed by Border Patrol, unaccompanied minors fall under the supervision of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families. The agency reportedly works with a network of 200 shelters in roughly 24 states, according to a report by the Associated Press. Shelters are often set up inside military bases, stadiums and convention centers, referred to as “emergency intake sites.”

At its peak, HHS had 20,339 children in its care in April, with an average shelter occupancy rate of 76%.

…”The Biden administration wasn’t prepared,” Judd (Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd) wrote in a Fox News op-ed, and agents were “forced to hold a good number of these children long past what the law allowed. Instead of creating a long-term solution, the Biden administration merely cut back on the vetting process of the sponsors to whom children were being released.”

The decision to weaken the vetting process contributed, in part, to the Biden administration’s loss of contact with 40% of the more than 114,000 unaccompanied children who entered the U.S. illegally, according to a report by Axios. The report is based on data received through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

The article at Just the News concludes:

According to Bloomberg Law, illegal alien teens were allegedly trafficked to agricultural or poultry processing facilities in Alabama and Oregon. DOJ’s Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit said it was aware of labor exploitation and/or potential labor trafficking of unaccompanied minors in several jurisdictions and was investigating with others in law enforcement.

But even before then, by April, reports of sexual abuse and violence against children were reported at two facilities in El Paso and San Antonio, Texas, prompting Gov. Greg Abbott to call on the Biden administration to close the facilities.

Abbott sent a letter to Biden demanding answers about the treatment of the children, and directed Texas state troopers and rangers to intervene where possible. “The Biden administration  is presiding over the abuse of children,” he said.

Abbott never received a response from Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris. 

Breitbart reports:

More than 16,000 migrants who tested positive for COVID-19 while in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody were released into the United States, according to an agency law enforcement source. The Biden administration did not mandate any of the migrants to be vaccinated before their release. The source informs Breitbart Texas that the figures only include those migrants who were tested by ICE.

I think we need a President who will protect the American people both from human trafficking and from people entering the country carrying the coronavirus.

 

Interesting

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The New York Post is reporting today that three of the Texas Democrats who fled the state rather than vote on the voting regulations bill have tested positive for the coronavirus. All three of them were vaccinated.

The article reports:

Chris Turner, chairman of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, said Saturday that the three unnamed members, who tested positive on Friday night and Saturday morning, would self-isolate for 10 days. One of the three is experiencing mild symptoms of COVID-19.

All three members had been fully vaccinated before they and nearly 60 other representatives crowded onto buses and chartered planes Tuesday to deny a quorum in a special legislative session called by Gov. Greg Abbott.

In the days since, the group has made the rounds on Capitol Hill to lobby for passage of the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, Democrat-pushed bills that would federalize elections and override GOP state laws targeting voter fraud.

The runaway Dems held a non-socially-distanced meeting with Vice President Harris, visited Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in his office, and crowded together to sing an off-key version of “We Shall Overcome” for the press.

The article concludes:

The coronavirus cases drew mockery on social media.

“This is a group of people who said Greg Abbott was going to kill Texans by reopening the state and tossing the mask mandate,” conservative commentator Erick Erickson tweeted. “Then they went to DC and didn’t wear masks.”

I am sorry that they have come down with the coronavirus, but this raises more questions than answers. They were all vaccinated. If the vaccine does not protect you, why is there such a push to get it? How many people did they spread the virus to while they were in Washington?