EAGLE PASS, Texas — Utah Gov. Spencer Cox stood at the front line of the country’s roiling immigration crisis on Sunday above the banks of the Rio Grande with 14 other Republican governors and Utah Speaker of the House Mike Schultz.
Flanked by several dozen national guardsmen and a fleet of sand-colored humvees, the governors, led by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, reaffirmed their position in an escalating constitutional standoff with the federal government and placed the blame for the country’s crisis-level immigration surge squarely at the feet of the president of the United States.
“Because of the extraordinary dangers that the state of Texas is facing, as well as states across the country, and because Joe Biden completely abdicated and abandoned his responsibility to enforce the laws of the United States, I have used a clause in the Constitution that empowers states to defend themselves,” Abbott told national media.
On Jan. 24, Abbott declared his intent to mobilize the state National Guard to secure the border — historically, and constitutionally, a federal duty. Citing Article I and Article IV of the Constitution, Abbott said if federal law goes unenforced, and under the conditions of an “invasion,” states are authorized to engage in self-defense.