Texas Governor Greg Abbott has pretty much told the Biden Administration to pound sand when it comes to Texas' takeover of border security in certain areas of his State, installing new razor wire to replace and augment that which was removed by the Border Patrol.
I completely understand Gov. Abbott's reason for taking the steps he has to secure his border, since the Federal Government under Joe Biden's handlers have shown a complete unwillingness to fulfill their constitutional duty to do so. Thus, Texas and other border states have had to bear the brunt of the consequences of having millions of people flooding their schools, hospitals, jails, and social welfare networks. It is an unconscionable breach of duty that should be punished to the fullest extent of the law.
Additionally, at an emotional level it feels good to finally see someone tell off the feds for their failures, as they are doing the feds job for them.
But let me pull back the zoom level a bit and put this situation in a slightly different context. The situation in Texas could be summarized as the State inserting itself into a situation that is properly under the jurisdiction of the Federal Government. Border security is a Federal job, right? That's why critics of Abbott's actions claim they are unconstitutional.
So let's shift to Illinois. The legislature there has passed a gun registration law which their Governor signed which required residents to register "assault weapons" and "high capacity" magazines. Well, the deadline came and went and less then ten percent (I believe) of owners who potentially owned these weapons actually registered them. So now, Gov. Pritzker could claim authority under Illinois law to go house to house and confiscate those "illegal" guns, despite the clear unconstitutionality of such actions under the 2nd Amendment, plus the Heller and Bruen decisions from the Supreme Court, and in doing so telling the Feds and the Supreme Court to pound sand, because "we have a crisis!". At least, he could under the precedent being set by Gov. Abbott.
In my mind, Gov. Abbott has started down a very slippery slope. I understand why, but wow - there are a lot of unintended consequences down the road that the unscrupulous politician (but I repeat myself!) will abuse to get what he wants.
Decisions and policies made in the heat of crisis are usually not good ones. We have to be really careful with this one or it will bite us in the backside down the road.
