“Invoke P!”

I invoked the Invasion Clauses of the U.S. & Texas Constitutions to fully authorize Texas to take unprecedented measures to defend our state against an invasion.

I'm using that constitutional authority, & other authorization & Executive Orders to keep our state & country safe: pic.twitter.com/2Jt5HEMgp5

— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) November 15, 2022

Yeah, it doesn’t work that way.

(2/12) Article I, Sec. 10 allows states to “engage in War” when they are “actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.” This matters because in all other circumstances the exercise of war powers is the exclusive prerogative of the federal government.

— Joseph Nunn (@josephanunn) November 15, 2022

A) Texas is not being invaded:

(4/12) Only armed invasions that are “too formidable for the civil power to overcome” can trigger states’ right of self-defense. The Founders foresaw such invasions being launched by “ambitious or vindictive” foreign powers and groups, not unarmed migrants and asylum-seekers.

— Joseph Nunn (@josephanunn) November 15, 2022

B) The Constitution doesn’t work that way.

(6/12) Moreover, the federal government can disagree with – and forbid – a state’s exercise of war powers under Article I, Sec. 10. If this were not the case, then a single state could drag the whole country into a protracted conflict.

— Joseph Nunn (@josephanunn) November 15, 2022

C)

(8/12) In reality, Abbott’s actions are nothing more than a thinly veiled effort to take the reins on U.S. immigration policy. But here again, the Constitution stands in his way.

— Joseph Nunn (@josephanunn) November 15, 2022

It’s not even that. Abbott doesn’t want control of immigration policy. He wants to up the ante against Biden. His bus rides north have lost their PR punch. And now he’s going back to stunts he’s tried before, because he’s out of ideas. 

This is just an excuse to send DPS and National Guard members back to the border. Abbott tried this once before; it failed miserably. No one was caught. He had DPS stop traffic to inspect vehicles. That one clogged commercial traffic so badly he dropped it within 72 hours. The National Guard was on the border so long with so little to do members startedgoin AWOL or attempting suicide.

(10/12) For all these reasons, the Biden administration would likely succeed in court if it sued to stop Abbott from carrying out his plans.

— Joseph Nunn (@josephanunn) November 15, 2022

(12/12) For a fuller explanation of these issues with sources, see my and @EbrightYon’s July 2022 piece in @just_security https://t.co/IbsNGniaGF

— Joseph Nunn (@josephanunn) November 15, 2022

Abbott knows all this. He just wants the House GOP to take up the cause and raise his national profile in the process.

DeSantis isn’t the only one who wants to ride into the White House on the backs of immigrants.