With about 1,300 individuals on terrorist watch lists having crossed the border since 2022 alone along with an estimated 1.8 million unknown background "gotaways" and many millions more unvetted "migrants" from more than 150 countries, a candid statement from one recent crosser communicates an ominous warning.
A social media video displays an illegal immigrant from the Mideast responding to a reporter asking his identity who states: "If you are smart enough you would know who I am. But you are really not smart enough to know who I am. Soon, you will know who I am. Believe me, you will see."
The current federal administration which is supposed to take charge of protecting all of us from those who are disposed to carry out such an obvious threat not only blatantly refuses to do so, but is actively obstructing border states from enacting self-defenses.
Left with no alternative, the State of Texas has passed legislation to accomplish what the Biden administration won’t … affirm and defend America’s status as a sovereign nation with controlled borders.
Among many provisions, the measure (SB-4) grants local law enforcement the power to arrest illegal migrants, gives judges the ability to issue orders to remove them to Mexico, and grants Texas National Guard and Texas Department of Public Safety the authority to enforce secure boundaries.
As previously discussed in this column, a key test of federal versus state jurisdiction in this security matter currently centers upon Eagle Pass, Texas, a major illegal crossing point along the Rio Grande where Texas troopers and National Guard personnel have erected razor wire barriers.
Subsequently, a recent 5-4 Supreme Court ruling grants U.S. Custom and Border Protection (CBP) agents the authority to cut the concertina wire, reversing an earlier December court of appeals decision.
The Lone Star State, meanwhile --- under top leadership of Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas --- continues to install more wire fencing as a constitutional right to defend and protect its citizens against an “invasion” that supersedes federal law.
A statement on Gov. Abbott’s website warns: "James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and the other visionaries who wrote the U.S. Constitution foresaw that States should not be left to the mercy of a lawless president who does nothing to stop external threats like cartels smuggling millions of illegal immigrants across the border."
"That" it follows, "is why the Framers included both Article IV, § 4, which promises that the federal government 'shall protect each [State] against invasion,' and Article I, § 10, Clause 3, which acknowledges 'the States' sovereign interest in protecting their borders.'"
The website argues that "The federal government has broken the compact between the United States and the States," whereby "The Executive Branch of the United States has a constitutional duty to enforce federal laws protecting States, including immigration laws on the books right now."
The governor further charges: "President Biden has refused to enforce those laws and has even violated them. The result is that he has smashed records for illegal immigration. Despite having been put on notice in a series of letters — one of which I delivered to him by hand — President Biden has ignored Texas’ demand that he perform his constitutional duties."
Abbott notes that under Biden’s "lawless border policies," more than 6 million illegal immigrants have crossed the southern border in the last three years…That is more than the population of 33 different States in this country."
Far beyond Texas, Abbott observes, "This illegal refusal to protect the States has inflicted unprecedented harm on the People all across the United States."
Two dozen conservative governors from other states, including Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma, Kristi Noem, R-S.D., Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., Glenn Youngkin, R-Va., and Brian Kemp, R-Ga., have said they support Abbott’s actions.
Former presidential candidate DeSantis said on X: "If the Constitution really made states powerless to defend themselves against an invasion, it wouldn’t have been ratified in the first place and Texas would have never joined the union when it did," adding “TX is upholding the law while Biden is flouting it."
Gov. Youngkin added that the Biden administration "has turned every state into a border state," and that Abbott is doing what the border officials "refuse to do to secure our border . . . We must stop the flow of fentanyl, save lives, and secure our southern border."
As residents of all states increasingly recognize social, criminal, and economic border burdens, illegal immigration has become a top issue among likely voters.
According to a January Harvard CAPS-Harriss poll, 35% of respondents listed immigration policy as their paramount concern, even topping inflation (32%), and economy and jobs (25%).
Meanwhile, the House Homeland Security Committee is in the process of marking up articles of impeachment to remove U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas from office, teeing up a historic vote to topple a Cabinet member for the first time since the 1870s.
Whether ultimately successful in booting him or not, little will be accomplished without removal of his boss who is also under House impeachment scrutiny for this national security breach among much broader unconstitutional offenses.
That all-important impeachment decision will be rendered by voters in November of this year, a judgement by "we the people" that will more decisively determine America’s sovereign future than any other in modern history.
Larry Bell is an endowed professor of space architecture at the University of Houston where he founded the Sasakawa International Center for Space Architecture and the graduate space architecture program. His latest of 12 books is "Architectures Beyond Boxes and Boundaries: My Life By Design" (2022). Read Larry Bell's Reports — More Here.