The Texas National Guard continued to fortify the border with Mexico.
The immigration crisis in the United States continues to worsen and none of the policies implemented by Democrats or Republicans have managed to stop it, largely because they do not address the root cause: the way the country deals with its neighbors in Latin America and the Caribbean, characterized by impositions, sanctions and blockades. On the contrary: the migration phenomenon could become fuel that exacerbates other crises in the country.
Since Joe Biden took office in January 2021 promising to change his predecessor Donald Trump's tough immigration policies, more than 6.3 million migrants have crossed the southern border of the United States, many of them irregularly. In December 2023, a new monthly record was recorded with more than 225,000 people crossing the border irregularly.
Against a backdrop of political polarization, anti-immigrant discourse is taking shape among the general population and will influence the upcoming presidential election in November. Therefore, it is not surprising that it is already being used by Democrats and essentially Republicans for electoral purposes. .
Early 2024 According to a CBSNews study, 68% of Americans are dissatisfied with the current administration's handling of the U.S.-Mexico border, while 45% believe the situation at the border can be classified as a crisis – as of May 2023 it 38%. Compared to September 2023, the number of US citizens who believe immigration policies should be tightened has increased from 55% to 63%.
In this context, on January 22, 2024, the Supreme Court of the United States, by a vote of five to four, supported Joe Biden in his dispute with the Texas state government. Biden called for U.S. Border Patrol agents to have full access to the border so they could remove barbed wire barriers that regional authorities had erected on the banks of the Rio Grande on the U.S. side.
Texas authorities refused to abide by the Supreme Court's decision and openly opposed Joe Biden's administration. In response to calls to remove the barbed wire, the Texas National Guard continued to fortify the shoreline at Eagle Pass, preventing federal officials from enforcing the court order.
The real controversy began on January 24, when Texas Governor Greg Abbott made an official statement about the state's right to self-defense and called for disobedience to Washington. The states of Florida, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Montana joined Texas in rejecting Biden's decision.
Concerns from the White House
The conflict between the White House and the Texas government raises concerns about a possible armed confrontation on the border with Mexico. Law professor Ilya Somin warns that the Texas National Guard's takeover of the U.S. border creates a dangerous situation because they could face border patrol, “and if someone does something stupid, an unfortunate confrontation could ensue.”
The January 24 declarations sharpen this commitment to separatism by emulating the ideas espoused by the Confederacy in the United States on the eve of the Civil War in 1861. Analysts have detailed that the first is a copy of the second.
All of this reinforces the trend toward fragmentation in the United States, where more and more citizens are demanding the separation of their states from the union. In 2021, a poll found that a large number of Republican voters in the South (66%) and half of independent voters supported secession. On the other hand, strong support for secession was also evident on the West Coast, but with a different political tendency, supported mainly by the Democrats.
The idea of a fragmented United States teetering on the brink of collapse is not new, but it is becoming increasingly apparent. Borders fenced with barbed wire, federal forces trying to eliminate them and the intervention of the National Guard bring the reality closer to any Hollywood-conceived fiction in which “civil war” type dystopias could materialize.
(Taken from Mission Truth)
See also
Biden supports a bipartisan migration control bill that would allow “closing the border” with Mexico