Texas Governor Greg Abbott gave the Texas National Guard and the state’s Department of Public Safety (DPS) permission to detain migrants who had entered the country and bring them back to the border with Mexico on July 7.
Abbott released an executive order in a news release that enables state law enforcement to detain immigrants who cross the border between ports of entry or break other federal laws and return them to the ports of entry. The decision was made at a time when record numbers of migrants are trying to escape poverty and violence brought on by more than a century of US imperialist exploitation of Central and Latin America.
5,000 migrants were allegedly apprehended over the Fourth of July weekend, according to Abbott.
According to Abbott’s remark, “While President Biden refuses to do his job and enforce the immigration laws enacted by Congress, the State of Texas is once again stepping up and taking unprecedented action to protect Americans and secure our southern border.”
The ridiculous assertion that Biden and the Democrats are pursuing an open border policy is a component of the fascist toolbox of falsehoods that has become the Republican Party’s stock in trade under Trump. In reality, Biden is carrying out the unconstitutional Title 42 policy that Trump enacted in March 2020, ordering the swift deportation of asylum seekers at the southern border under the guise of a COVID-19 pandemic-related public health emergency.
It is generally known that Stephen Miller, Trump’s fascist advisor, was behind this de facto, broad rejection of the right to asylum—a right that is protected by both international and US law.
It corresponded with Trump’s strategy of rejecting the steps necessary to stop the spread of COVID-19 and reopening businesses and schools.
Biden has since adopted Trump’s herd immunity strategy, which involves enabling the virus to spread at the expense of human life and public health in the name of corporate profit.
Two days before to Abbott’s statement, right-wing leaders and former Trump administration officials in sparsely populated South Texas counties urged the governor to declare a state of emergency and employ wartime emergency powers.
