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Dramatic scenes take place on the Texas-Mexico border. The Texas National Guard denies US border guards access to the banks of the Rio Grande. The US government wants to tear down kilometers of barbed wire to stop migrants from Mexico; Texas wants to prevent exactly that. Armed US government organizations face off at the border. Some politicians are already talking about a civil war. Is there a risk of armed conflict between border guards? Blick has answered the most important questions.
What happened on the Rio Grande?
To stop the increasing number of migrants (2.5 million people reached Texas in 2023), Republican Governor Greg Abbott (66) took drastic measures in 2023. He stretched razor-sharp barbed wire for miles along the banks of the border river. A buoy barrier in the riverbed with attached circular saw blades should also make it more difficult for migrants to swim across to American territory.
But the so-called anti-immigration operation ‘Operation Lone Star’ (OLS) in Texas violates federal law. Because migration in the US is a federal matter and not a matter for the respective border states.
What’s behind ‘Operation Lone Star’?
The operation involves 10,000 Texas National Guard officers. Their border operation has been running since 2021 and costs the state only $2 billion per year.
The Texas government reports that the track record is impressive. About half a million migrants were detained, nearly 38,700 criminals arrested and 454 million packets of the drug fentanyl seized. The number of migrants increased by only nine percent in 2022 — little compared to the 62 percent increase in the border states of Arizona, California and New Mexico.
What bothers Joe Biden about going it alone in Texas?
Under U.S. federal law, only Border Patrol agents are authorized to screen arriving migrants — not a state’s National Guard. On humanitarian grounds, the Biden administration also rejected the razor wire that would hurt people and the “floating wall” and filed a lawsuit months ago. The Supreme Court agreed with Washington. It ordered that the federal government be allowed to remove the barbed wire again.
But Texas is rebelling. US President Joe Biden (81) has been allowing hundreds of thousands of migrants into the country for years, says Greg Abbott in American media. Texas is taking matters into its own hands. The governor and friend of Trump does not care about the Supreme Court’s ruling and prevents Biden’s border police from doing their work.
How could Joe Biden put down the mutiny?
Normally the National Guard is subordinate to the state in question. But by applying so-called Title 10 status, the U.S. government could “federalize” a state’s National Guard for internal security reasons — that is, place it under federal command — thus stripping the governor of command authority. The calls for Title 10 status are growing louder among Democrats.
Biden hasn’t decided anything yet. With good reason: Greg Abbott knows that a large majority of Republicans are on his side. Last Thursday, 25 of the 26 Republican states publicly declared their solidarity with the rebels in Texas. In the election campaign, the US divide could become a political powder keg.
Why do Republicans warn of civil war?
Many Trump supporters believe that Joe Biden came to power through election fraud and cheered the storming of the Capitol in January 2021. A survey by The Economist and YouGov found: 54 percent of Republicans surveyed believe a civil war is likely in the coming years.
Republican politician Carl Higbie (40) threatens that the Texans’ mutiny against the Biden administration could spark a civil war if Biden applies ‘Title 10 status’. South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem (52) is already calling Texas a ‘war zone’. According to Governor John Kevin Stitt (51), his state of Oklahoma, Tennessee, Florida and other border states would also mobilize their national guard against the White House.
Source: Blick
I am Amelia James, a passionate journalist with a deep-rooted interest in current affairs. I have more than five years of experience in the media industry, working both as an author and editor for 24 Instant News. My main focus lies in international news, particularly regional conflicts and political issues around the world.
