George P. Bush, Texas Land Commissioner and a candidate for Texas Attorney General, wants to declare the flood of migrants over the Mexican border an invasion.
"[Pres.] Joe Biden has abandoned the state of Texas, leaving our communities to suffer the crippling effects of a mass invasion perpetrated by known terrorists, drug cartels, and human smugglers," Bush said on his website. "The administration's abject failure to act has created an unlimited criminal enterprise for these bad actors that seek nothing other than personal gain at the expense of everyday Texans."
Texas should "assert our sovereignty and immediately declare an invasion of our state under the U.S. constitution," Bush said.
The state has already deployed members of the Texas National Guard and Department of Public Safety (DPS) troopers to the border, but they are handcuffed by federal policies, the candidate said.
"Attorney General Ken Paxton has routinely failed to secure our border, refusing to make legal arguments that give Gov. Abbott the backing to take such action and refusing to deploy legal resources to Border County DA offices," Bush said. "He has consistently followed in the shadows of other states less impacted by open border policies, content to fall back and let others lead the fight. Texas needs an attorney general who is willing to take every action available to secure our state and restore Texas justice."
In March, 159,900 individuals were encountered crossing the border nationwide, a 37% increase from February, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). CBP noted that those numbers may be misleading, as the increased number of expulsions resulted in higher than normal occurrences of multiple crossing attempts. Among the 221,303 people encountered, "28% involved individuals who had at least one prior encounter in the previous 12 months, compared to an average one-year re-encounter rate of 14% for FY 2014-2019," the agency said.
A commentary by the Wall Street Journal editorial board noted that the end of Title 42 expulsions, which rejected two million migrants since March 2020, "is an invitation for migrants to keep coming for any reason."
One proposed solution is to declare the southern border crisis an invasion, which would result in the ability to use state personnel to deport migrants but may open Texas law enforcement to federal scrutiny, the Austin Journal reported. Gov. Greg Abbott (R-Texas) is reportedly considering the idea.
The Center for Renewing America is in favor of the invasion-declaration strategy, drawing attention to the human cost of loose border policies.
"There can be no disputing that the influx of well over 1.3 million illegal immigrants this calendar year alone and thousands of pounds of fentanyl and other deadly narcotics, facilitated by the widespread human trafficking efforts of violent international drug cartels, constitutes an invasion of the southern border of the United States," the group said in October 2021.