It’s a Texas tradition as old as, well, at least the Perry administration. Don some camouflage, maybe add a bulletproof vest, and scurry south. Find someone with a gun, have your photo taken, get out on a boat, another photo, set your jaw and squint your eyes as you peer into the middle distance, photo. Assemble every cop and Border Patrol agent you can for a roundtable, then bellow: “The immigrants are coming, and I’m the guy to stop them.” It’s border security theater, the show that never ends.
Since President Biden took office, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has reprised his Obama-era role as the border security hawk filling in for a negligent federal government. It’s a part he never fully quit during the Trump years, but his performance intensified this year. He’s declared an emergency, pledged to build his own version of Trump’s wall, and marshaled police from multiple states to flood the border. It’s a program aimed at Republican primary voters, one that comes at the expense of refugees, immigrants, and Texas taxpayers.
In May, Abbott declared that undocumented immigrants crossing the border constituted a disaster in 34 Texas counties. The move paved the way for state and county law enforcement cooperation, but 11 counties, including the three most populous South Texas border counties, declined to participate. Local leaders in the Rio Grande Valley and Laredo tend to resist militarization and hyperbolic rhetoric about their low-crime communities, but Abbott charged ahead, expanding his declaration to include counties more than 100 miles from the border.
