Texas governor Greg Abbott threatens to declare 'invasion'
This would allow him to assume war powers; Abbott has pushed for the construction of 32 kilometers (20 miles) of new border fences.
The governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, warned that he is considering declaring an "invasion" due to the increasing arrival of migrants to the Mexican border with the United States, which would allow him to assume war powers and expand his powers, according to The New York Times.
Abbott could do so by appealing to the article of the Constitution that states cannot participate in a war, except when "actually invaded". Top lawyers for Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton met to discuss the measure, which would put the state on a head-on collision course with the federal government by allowing state police to arrest and deport immigrants, according to 'The New York Times' citing two people familiar with these talks.
Abbott says he remains open to options but has expressed concern about "unintended consequences" if no action is taken. The Republican governor has already mobilized thousands of National Guard troops to guard border posts and ordered security inspections of trucks coming from Mexico, leading to a disruption of international trade.
In addition, Abbott has pushed for the construction of 20 miles of new border fencing, set aside state prisons for immigrant internment, and paid for buses to take immigrants from Texas to Washington DC.
Greg Abbott extorted from Mexican governors
The Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Marcelo Ebrard, described as "extortion" the position of the Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, who has lifted the extraordinary controls of goods at the border in exchange for concessions from the governors of the Mexican border states.
The controls implemented by the Texan authorities caused queues of between 24 and 30 hours at the border, which forced the governors of Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and Chihuahua to negotiate, each on their own, agreements and concessions.
"Let me put it in quotation marks. It is an extortion scheme. More like extortion. I close the border and you have to sign what I say. That's not an agreement. An agreement is that you and I agree on something and the migration problem is not Mexico's problem. It is the decisions that the United States must make," Ebrard said from Nuevo Leon, according to the newspaper 'Milenio'.
The implementation of border measures was not a negotiation, affirms the Mexican Foreign Minister.
Thus, the governor of Nuevo Leon, Samuel Garcia, has committed to maintaining checkpoints before reaching Puente Colombia and patrols along 14 kilometers of the border. After the signing of the memorandum of understanding, crossings through Nuevo León were speeded up.
Ebrard has pointed out that he does not question the Mexican state governors for agreeing to the Republican's demands because, he indicated, "they had no other alternative".
"I don't judge. I think the governors do what they can. They had no other alternative, but we are not going to be willing to allow a governor to extort Mexico. I will never allow that.
