Washington, DC – Operation Lone Star is Greg Abbott’s signature policy move as Governor of Texas, and over two years later, it remains an unmitigated disaster. The latest revelation comes as part of the legal challenge from the Department of Justice over Gov. Abbott’s river wall, which is largely constructed on the Mexican side of the border in violation of Mexico’s sovereignty and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. New reporting from The Dallas Morning News details how Abbott’s new plan of action is to take this fight all the way to the Supreme Court to get a favorable ruling:
“The Justice Department scoffed Thursday at Texas’ assertion it’s free to install anti-migrant buoys in the Rio Grande, regardless of treaties and federal law, because ‘Texas purportedly is being invaded’ by migrants.
…The stakes include state sovereignty and relations with the country’s biggest trading partner.
The Justice Department submitted evidence Tuesday that nearly 80% of the 1,000-foot buoy barrier is on Mexico’s side of the border – a violation of sovereignty that has infuriated Mexico.”
The Justice Department is also disputing Gov. Abbott’s previously debunked legal claims about an alleged “invasion.” The Justice Department cites the 1996 decision by the Supreme Court, that rejected and clearly defined the Invasion Clause after several states, including Texas made similar arguments.
Beyond the debunked legal theory, the assertion that desperate migrants seeking safety and security in the United States constitutes a literal “invasion” is inexorably tied to the white nationalist great replacement theory, which has inspired multiple domestic terror attacks.
According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director for America’s Voice:
“How much longer will Republicans engage in theatrics at the border rather than engage in meaningful policy reform? A debunked legal theory is being pushed by far-right idealogues at the Immigration Reform Law Institute (an arm of the hate group known as FAIR, the Federation for American Immigration Reform), in Congress, and other nativists that claims that Governors have extraordinary powers if they declare an “invasion” by migrants. But just like the shaky legal theories that put President Trump in legal jeopardy, this legal theory is full of holes. There is no invasion and the Texas Governor can’t – nor can any Governor – change international boundaries between nations or take hostile actions against those nations. Period.
Governor Abbott’s failures in Operation Lone Star are just the latest from a political party that refuses to govern. So far, Operation Lone Star’s legacy is death and dehumanization, but Greg Abbott continues to double down. People are dying because of an unwillingness to focus on the true issues that surround our immigration system. The tragedy that we have seen comes from a fictitious and racist theory that we are being invaded, and is now causing international conflict with one of our most important allies. Enough is enough.”
