Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, told Newsmax on Friday that he applauds the governor ''for effectively declaring an invasion,'' referencing Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's executive order to return all immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally to the border.
''It's sad that our federal government has so failed Texas and border states and that this president of ours is so derelict in his sacred duty to enforce the laws of the land that the state would have to step up and do this job, but that's why the provision in the Constitution exists,'' Arrington said on ''The Chris Salcedo Show.'' ''So that states like Texas would retain the sovereign right of self-defense in a disastrous situation.''
''Folks, when you have a derelict president on one side of the equation and a paramilitary, narco terrorist cartel in control of your border, pushing a product that is poisoning over 100,000 Americans, making it the leading cause of death [for people] 18 to 45, that's an invasion,'' he continued. ''The president has failed. Our governor in his full right is there to defend and take over for the federal government.''
The Texas Tribune reports that Abbott has faced growing pressure from within his own party to assert a stronger state role and invoke ''invasion'' powers under the U.S. Constitution. Some Texas Republicans claim that such a declaration would give states solid legal ground to invoke war powers to allow the state's National Guard to deport immigrants who crossed the border illegally.
The idea has been widely rejected by legal experts as a political ploy, and earlier this year Abbott expressed concern that it could expose state law enforcement to federal prosecution.
Abbott's order on Thursday stopped short of declaring an invasion, but allows the Texas National Guard and Texas Department of Public Safety to apprehend ''immigrants who cross the border between ports of entry or commit other violations of federal law, and to return'' them to ports of entry, the Tribune reports.
The executive order is not clear on what state authorities would do with the migrants once they returned them to the ports of entry, which are staffed by federal immigration authorities.
Responding to comments by White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre that Texas has no authority to stop illegal immigration, Arrington said that ''it's not meddling.''
''It's actually defending our sovereignty, which this president and the Biden administration has completely abdicated,'' he said.
Arrington, who is seeking another term in Texas' 19th Congressional District, faces independents Jay Ford and Nathan Lewis in the Nov. 8 general election. The district's March 1 Democratic primary was canceled because no candidates entered the race.
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