Despite 'invasion' declaration, experts say it doesn't force change
SAN ANTONIO (WOAI/KABB) — Four Texas border county judges have signed declarations of an "invasion" happening on the Texas-Mexico border.
They are now asking Republican Gov. Greg Abbott to sign one as well so he can help them secure the southern border.
According to legal experts, the term “invasion” is more incendiary than substance in hopes to stir up action from the federal government who, to this point, critics say has only practiced inaction.
"You hear the term invasion and that is exactly what this is,” Goliad County Sheriff Roy Boyd said.
Officials sounding the alarm Tuesday in Kinney County as they said counties all over Texas are overrun with migrants seeking asylum.
In response to their cries for help, Abbott’s press secretary Renae Eze said in a statement today "all strategies remain on the table," but fell short of using the term invasion in any part of the statement.
“I think they're feeling desperate about a situation that is really the purview of the federal government,” University of Texas at San Antonio law professor Jamal Rhadbane said.
Rhadbane said Abbott, in theory, could now choose to declare that Texas is being invaded - mobilizing the National Guard and DPS at the border.
The Biden administration could then stop that in a matter of moments with a cease-and-desist as well as federalizing the troops.
“Invasion really has a specific meaning, at least historically,” Rhadbane said. “And that's armed military invasion by an entity seeking to enforce a political will upon you. It can begin to incite people's emotions. That's precisely the problem."
Former Homeland Security special agent in charge of San Antonio Jerry Robinette said this is the worst he has ever seen the immigration problem, but it is not an invasion.
“This might be an attempt to basically bring more attention to the severity,” Robinette said. “And the reality of it is what happens on the border does not stay on the border"
However, even Democrats like Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, said this is Biden's issue.
“When the federal government doesn't do more, because the Biden administration is embedded with all this immigration activists, then this is what you do is you get people that are calling this an invasion,” Cuellar said.
Cuellar said the lack of action by Biden and his administration encourages states to take things into their own hands.
