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By Aleks Phillips
U.S. News Reporter
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A map of U.S. states shows that nearly all of the Republican governors are now backing Texas Governor Greg Abbott in his ongoing dispute with the Biden administration over his attempts to stop illegal migrant crossings into the state from Mexico.
In a 5-4 vote on Monday, the Supreme Court surprised many by siding with the president, ruling that federal agents could—for now—resume cutting razor wire that Texas has been installing along a stretch of the southern border.
The installation of concertina wire along the Rio Grande was among several physical measures Abbott has taken at the border in his efforts to stem the number of migrants entering Texas. In the year to September 2023, nearly 1.4 million migrants entered the state illegally, according to figures compiled by the Customs and Border Protection (CPB) agency, marginally lower than in the previous year.
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In the days since the ruling, Abbott has said the fight is "not over" and praised the Texas National Guard for continuing to "hold the line."
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In a statement on Wednesday, the Republican governor said Texas had a "right to self-defense" under the state's constitution—invoking laws designed to protect it from the threat of "invasion"—while accusing the Biden administration of failing to execute immigration laws enacted by the U.S. Congress.
The White House has previously called Abbott's border tactics, like using razor wire, "political stunts" that were "cruel" and "inhumane." Biden has faced calls to federalize the Texas National Guard over Abbott's dissent.
In the year to September, the CBP recorded a higher rate of migrant encounters along the southern border—almost 2.5 million—than in recent previous years. Texas is one of four states to share a border with Mexico, but contains around half of the border's length.
Abbott's invocation of self-defense clauses and his claim that "the supreme law of the land supersedes any federal statutes to the contrary" has been backed by all but one of the 26 Republican governors—the exception being Vermont's Phil Scott.
Included in the 25 to have signed a joint statement pledging their solidarity with the Texas governor, were Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Ohio's Mike DeWine, Virginia's Glenn Youngkin and Arkansas' Sarah Sanders.
"If the Constitution really made states powerless to defend themselves against an invasion, it wouldn't have been ratified in the first place and Texas would have never joined the union when it did," DeSantis wrote on Wednesday.
Texas, which prior to becoming a U.S. state in 1845 was an independent republic, has been subject to renewed calls to declare independence, a movement dubbed "Texit" after the portmanteau used for Britain's exit from the European Union.
Youngkin said Virginia "stands with Texas" in the dispute, while DeWine described the situation along the southern border as "untenable and just keeps getting worse." Sanders wrote that "if President Biden won't defend us, states will have to defend themselves."
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