Last week, Republicans saw red after the U.S. Supreme Court sided with the Biden administration in its efforts to remove razor wire at the southern border. Certain conservatives have since lusted for a Texas v. the Feds standoff, with some even going so far as to fantasize about civil war.
Gov. Greg Abbott issued a statement last week on Texas’ “constitutional right to self-defense.” It noted that he’d already declared an “invasion,” something that at least 51 counties in the state have also reportedly done.
Abbott posted photos on Jan. 23 of Texas National Guard members “hold[ing] the line” at the border.
Texas politicians’ rhetoric is amplifying the possibility of violence, said Wendy Via, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism. These leaders carry sway, and folks who are anti-immigrant will take words like “invasion” quite seriously.
“Invasion means that somebody is coming to take what you have, right?” Via said. “So for anti-immigrant [people] or the shooter in El Paso or even border vigilantes, which are growing and growing and growing, the potential for tragedy is tremendous.”
The Texas National Guard continues to hold the line in Eagle Pass.
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) January 23, 2024
Texas will not back down from our efforts to secure the border in Biden’s absence. pic.twitter.com/0IhF7x9b8X
The 2019 El Paso Walmart massacre was carried out by a man who’d claimed the attack was a reaction to the “invasion” of Hispanic people crossing the border. The slaughter claimed 23 lives and injured 22 others.
Today, extremism experts and immigrant rights advocates fear that elected officials’ adoption of war-like rhetoric could make trigger-happy vigilantes feel they have permission to take matters into their own hands.
More than two dozen other GOP governors are throwing their support behind Abbott. Some historians, though, are blasting the Texan’s actions as “neo-Confederate nonsense.”
Attorney General Ken Paxton is echoing Abbott’s messaging, writing on X that the high court’s temporary order lets President Joe Biden assist the “foreign invasion of America.”
Such language is also being wielded by violent extremist groups like the Proud Boys. And some conservative politicians have urged Texas’ top brass to defy the Supreme Court’s ruling.
"It's like, if someone's breaking into your house, and the court says, 'Oh, sorry. You can't defend yourself.' What do you tell the court?” U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, a Lone Star Republican, told Fox News last Tuesday. “You tell the court to go to hell. You defend yourself and then figure it out later.”
"The normalization of this rhetoric accelerates the threat to public safety and the erosion of democracy." – Vanessa Cárdenas, America's Voice
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Earlier this month, Abbott horrified many by stating that Texas isn’t shooting immigrants crossing the southern frontier because “the Biden administration would charge us with murder.”
The migrant body count has indeed ticked higher in recent days. A woman and two children drowned in the Rio Grande on Jan. 12 as they attempted to reach the U.S. while in a state of distress.
Former President Donald Trump weighed in late last week, writing on social media that other states should deploy soldiers to help out Texas. In January 2021, Trump’s lies about a “stolen election” inspired his followers to storm the U.S. Capitol.
Trump is openly calling for states to take up arms against the federal government, which is as close to calling for civil war as you can get without actually using the words. This is an alarming escalation and this situation could spiral out of control very, very quickly. pic.twitter.com/T7ijCf5sEo
— Caroline Orr Bueno, Ph.D (@RVAwonk) January 26, 2024
Texas politicians are now leading a chorus proclaiming that the state isn’t beholden to the federal government, Via said: “How is that different from Trump saying the elections have been rigged and we are going to do something about it?
“Does it end up being called an insurrection?” she continued. “I don't know how far Texas will end up going, but it’s definitely defying the federal government when it's sort of like black-letter law that federal law outweighs state law when it comes to border security.”
Demands are also ramping up for Texas to part ways with the other 49 states.
Secession, a once-fringe idea, has gained some currency in recent years. In 2022, the Texas GOP stated in its party platform that we retain “the right to secede from the United States[.]” And last week, Newsweek magazine headlined its latest cover story asking: Can the Lone Star State go it alone?
Immigration reform organizations are sounding the alarm about a worrying trend in the wake of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling. America’s Voice warned in a news release last week that the right wing's anti-feds hostility is intensifying.
Violence could soon follow.
“The normalization of this rhetoric accelerates the threat to public safety and the erosion of democracy,” Executive Director Vanessa Cárdenas said in a statement. “We cannot be desensitized and normalize calls to arms or rebellion against federal authorities and then act surprised if and when unhinged followers again take very seriously what these elected officials and media figures are calling for.”
The way Via sees it, Texas officials’ words are “dangerous.”
“Our political leaders have a responsibility to their constituents … to the citizens of Texas and to the citizens of the United States,” she said. “And their responsibility is to create a safe and productive environment, not whip people into a frenzy over what quite possibly could be illegal activity and potentially tragic activity. That's not doing the people of Texas a service.”
