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This isn't getting nearly as much attention as it should be, but Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) is engaging in some truly despicable political theater right now, with an assist from the ultra-conservative and often lawless Fifth Judicial Circuit.
What Abbott has done is take the money and authority recently bestowed upon him by the Texas legislature, and used the Texas State Guard (which is different from the Texas National Guard) to "secure" a high-traffic, 2.5-mile portion of the border between Texas and Mexico. Not only has the state put up miles of razor wire, it's also blocking federal agents from accessing the "secured" area.
This has done absolutely nothing to reduce the number of border crossings that are taking place. What it HAS done is allow the Texans to act on their cruelest impulses. They have allowed asylum seekers to suffer from severe dehydration and from heat exhaustion. They have also refused to intervene, and have stopped anyone else from intervening, when asylum seekers ended up in life-threatening danger. As a consequence of this inhumane policy—actually, let's just say evil policy—a woman and her two children drowned last week. We do not presume to know whether there is, or is not, a hell, but if there is we know a certain governor who deserves a one-way ticket.
Needless to say, all of this is all kinds of illegal. When people seek asylum, the United States is bound by international law to handle that in a particular way (and that way does not involve razor wire or drownings). Beyond that, the state of Texas has no legal authority to patrol or "secure" the border, or to interfere with the federal officials who DO have the legal authority to patrol the border. The Biden Administration sued, but a pair of Donald Trump-appointed judges decided that they see no problem here (the third judge on the panel, a G.W. Bush appointee, declined to join the opinion). The decision has been appealed to the Supreme Court, but the Supremes are dragging their feet.
We're not at all clear what Abbott is playing at here. He can be governor for as long as he wants, and he's not going to be a 2024 presidential candidate. So, who is he trying to impress? Maybe he's just a true believer who really, really hates immigrants and wants to do whatever he can to hurt them. Whatever is going on, he certainly knows that the Biden administration is weak on this issue, and that it would be politically impossible to take strong action (like, say, nationalizing the Texas State Guard), as that would turn into "Biden favors illegals over citizens of Texas!" So, all the White House can really do is wait for SCOTUS to do its job. (Z)