As Governor Greg Abbott escalates his border fight with the Biden administration, he is sounding a lot like an old Confederate.
Texas National Guard soldiers stand guard on the banks of the Rio Grande river at Shelby Park on January 12, 2024 in Eagle Pass, Texas.
(Brandon Bell / Getty Images)
Many Democrats treat the Empire of Texas as an alarming side show. Sure, the state executes the most people in the country; places bounties on those who smuggle pregnant people out of state to receive reproductive care; and uses migrants for target practice—but for many liberals the state is just a sick joke that can be disregarded until Ted Cruz shows up for a football game. Even now, as the state openly repudiates federal laws, the most common refrain from the “always-online” liberal community is “Good: give Texas back to Mexico.”
That is not the right answer. First of all, Texas doesn’t want to leave, it wants to invade the rest of the United States and remake the country in its own Christofascist image. Moreover, as is typical with these “states’ rights” types, the definition of “freedom” envisaged by the white guys running Texas is one where they are the only ones forever free—and they are allowed to subjugate women and people of color in their grabbable areas. But most important, allowing a state like Texas to thumb its nose at human rights and federal authority does nothing but give aid and comfort to other would-be rebel states to do the same.
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Texas is not a side show, it is ground zero in the battle to reassert state’s rights over individual rights and the federal government. And, with the help of Republican judges and a Democratic administration that still seems beholden to a rulebook Texas is eager to torch, Texas is more or less winning the first battle in this Civil War reenactment.
The flashpoint for this crisis is, of course, the border. I have written before about the crossing at Eagle Pass, Texas, a place along the Rio Grande where it is popular for immigrants to make the crossing. Texas Governor Greg Abbott has erected a series of sadistic obstructions across this part of the river—including buoys ringed with razor wire and underwater traps—meant to maim and even drown people trying to swim across the river. Should people, and their children, survive Abbott’s gauntlet, Texas officials on the other side have been accused of pushing them back into the river, or denying the survivors medical aid or even water.
In response to this murder-barrier, which is in clear violation of both federal law and international human rights laws, US Attorney General Merrick Garland… filed a lawsuit. Because when a rebel force erects a literal death trap on federal lands, the right answer is to use the slow and plodding legal process instead of sending, I don’t know, a Zumwalt-class naval destroyer into the river to clear the obstructions. The lawsuit is still pending while people drown, of course.
Lawsuits do have some effect on restraining Texas’s actions. Governor Abbott recently admitted: “The only thing that we’re not doing is we’re not shooting people who come across the border, because of course, the Biden administration would charge us with murder.” So, good job “murder laws,” way to make murderers think twice before murdering people. Nonetheless, Garland’s lawsuit did not compel Texas to tear down its medieval fortifications.
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Eventually, the Biden administration did send federal border patrol agents to Texas to monitor and provide humanitarian aid to the people Abbott would let die. In response, Abbott erected another razor wire fence, this time to keep the federal agents away from the river and prevent them from helping.
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Again, instead of cutting through the razor wire and arresting the people trying to obstruct the federal government, the Biden administration sued. I’m going to say this part really slowly for the MAGA “tourists”: preventing federal officials from carrying out their duties is a crime.
The federal government has nearly unfettered authority to make national immigration policy, and even if you’ve watched too much Fox News to believe that, it certainly has total constitutional authority to patrol the nation’s borders. Lawyers for Texas argued, however, that the government’s authority does not extend to repurposing private dwellings to enact its policies, and that’s true. But putting up a fence to block access to an international waterway does not convert the Rio freaking Grande into a private dwelling.
The Supreme Court heard this case on emergency appeal—and last week it ruled in favor of the Biden administration. But, shockingly, the vote was only 5-4, with justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and alleged attempted rapist Brett Kavanaugh all dissenting without comment. (It might have been interesting if they did; we might have gotten the first judicial comment about the Third Amendment—which prohibits forcing private individuals to provide for federal troops—that anybody can remember.)
Despite the legal loss, Abbott was undeterred. Perhaps inspired by the fact that there appears to be at least four justices willing to defend Texas’s right to go to war with the federal government, Abbott issued a lengthy statement claiming that Texas is under foreign “invasion” (from desperate migrants who are too exhausted to stand after their ordeal); that the Biden administration has failed in its federal duty to protect Texas from invasion; and thus Texas has the authority to “defend itself” through any means. Abbott says Texas has a right to “stand its ground”—and we should all know by now that “stand your ground” is white people code for “kill brown people who bother us.” If that argument sounds totally detached from any reasonable code of laws, that’s because it is, but it should also sound familiar. Abbott and Texas has already made this exact same argument in defense of its recent “show me your papers”-style racial profiling bill, which allows Texas to arrest any undocumented immigrant—or any suspected undocumented immigrant, whatever the hell that means—and jail them or deport them back to Mexico, even if they’re not Mexican.
This ridiculous “invasion” rhetoric is being parroted by red-state governors across the country. South Dakota’s Kristi Noem, for instance, has said she is willing to send her state’s own troops to help Texas “secure the border.” Yes, red-state governors are threatening to send troops to Texas to fight federal agents.
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Liberals online dunked on Fox News because, after a New York jury announced that Trump owed E. Jean Carroll an additional $83 million for defaming her, Fox quickly cut away from the verdict to return to its ongoing “border crisis” coverage. It looked like Fox was doing its usual thing of distracting from the legal woes of their Lord and Savior with more fear mongering and fake news about immigration. To be clear, the network was certainly doing some of that. But we are in a situation where there is a state in open rebellion against both federal law and a Supreme Court order, and they’ve got guns.
The white-wing media complex is simply giddy about the prospect of defeating federal agents trying to enforce the law, while the left is devoting a lot of time to defending Taylor Swift. Don’t get me wrong, Swift seems like a really cool lady, and I hope that she and Kansas City Cultural Appropriations tight-end Travis Kelce have found true and everlasting love, but Texas is leading a revolt against the federal government, as it continues to harm immigrants, while the Biden administration waits for the refs to throw a flag.
People will say Texas is merely “causing a constitutional crisis” as opposed to spoiling for civil war. But that is the wrong frame. There is no “constitutional” crisis here, because there is nothing up for reasonable interpretation. Texas is violating the Constitution, as well as a court order, and it’s doing so in order to continue to hurt desperate people. The state is literally blocking humanitarian aid to people it deems disposable, effectively trying to shove them underneath the waves before the federal government can throw them a life raft. This is not a legal crisis: this is a rebellion against federal authority and the basic human decency that it’s trying to provide.
If President Biden will not enforce federal laws in Texas, nobody will. In this case, enforcing those laws requires not just breaking down the razor wire defenses and deconstructing the Eagle Pass barrier but also arresting the people who obstruct federal agents performing their duties. If Governor Abbott tries to further obstruct the operations of the federal government and continues to violate the Supreme Court’s order, he should be arrested for treason. And if all that seems aggressive and likely to escalate the conflict, I’d simply point out that appeasement never works, and Texas has already taken the aggressive step of violating court orders in order to harm as many migrants as it can, all while Biden and Garland impotently shout “hey pal, that’s not fair” as dead bodies float on by.
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Does Biden have the stomach to fight this? Abbott is betting that he doesn’t. It’s the same bet John C. Calhoun and Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee made about Abraham Lincoln: they didn’t think they could “win” the Civil War, they thought the Union wouldn’t have the will to stop them.
The Confederates were wrong about Lincoln. The Republicans may be right about Biden.
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Elie Mystal
Elie Mystal is The Nation’s justice correspondent and the host of its legal podcast, Contempt of Court. He is also an Alfred Knobler Fellow at the Type Media Center. His first book is the New York Times bestseller Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution, published by The New Press. Elie can be followed @ElieNYC.
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The state of Texas announced a lawsuit against streaming giant Netflix on Monday, accusing the company of spying on children and other consumers by collecting their data without consent and designing the platform to be addictive.
Texas claims that Netflix has falsely represented to consumers that it didn’t collect or share user data while it actually tracked and sold viewers’ habits and preferences to commercial data brokers and advertising technology companies.
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The lawsuit, filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, claims that “Netflix’s endgame is simple and lucrative: get children and families glued to the screen, harvest their data while they are stuck there, and then monetize the data for a handsome profit.”
The state of Texas announced a lawsuit against streaming giant Netflix on Monday. (Nikos Pekiaridis/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
“When you watch Netflix, Netflix watched you,” Texas added in the lawsuit.
NETFLIX CO-FOUNDER REED HASTINGS TO STEP DOWN, DEPARTURE IS ‘SPOOKING INVESTORS’
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The complaint quotes comments made by former CEO Reed Hastings who said in 2020, while he was still leading the streaming company, that “we don’t collect anything,” amid questions over Big Tech companies’ data collection practices.
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Netflix was also accused of quietly using “dark patterns” to keep users watching on its platform, such as an autoplay feature that starts a new show after a different show ends.
NETFLIX RAISES SUBSCRIPTION PRICES ACROSS ALL PLANS
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed the lawsuit. (Cheney Orr/Reuters)
Paxton said in a press release that Netflix “has built a surveillance program designed to illegally collect and profit from Texans’ personal data without their consent, and my office will do everything in our power to stop it.”
The attorney general said he’s charging Netflix under the state’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act and seeks to require Netflix to stop the unlawful collection and disclosure of user data, require Netflix to disable autoplay by default on kid’s profiles, and to secure injunctive relief and civil penalties.
Six people were found dead inside a cargo train boxcar in a Texas city along the southern border on Sunday, officials said.
The bodies were found in a Union Pacific train at a rail yard in Laredo, around 160 miles south of San Antonio, just after 3:30 p.m. local time, said Jose Espinoza, a public information officer with the Laredo Police Department.
The circumstances of their deaths are unknown, said Laredo police spokesperson Joe Baeza, according to CNN affiliate KGNS, and an investigation is underway.
Union Pacific operates across the border and is the only railroad that services all access points into Mexico, according to the freight company’s website.
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Temperatures on Sunday afternoon in Laredo were in the low-mid 90s, though it’s unclear whether heat was a factor.
Union Pacific said it was saddened by the incident and is working closely with law enforcement to investigate.
Laredo police said they received a call around 3 p.m. from an employee at the Union Pacific rail yard, KGNS reported. The bodies were discovered during a routine rail car inspection, police said. No survivors were found.
CNN has reached out to Laredo police for more information.
“It’s a very early phase of the investigation. There’s not a lot to reveal right now,” Baeza said, KGNS reported.
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The immigration status and ages of the deceased are not yet known, Espinoza said.
US Customs and Border Protection referred CNN to the Laredo Police Department, saying “The incident remains under investigation by Laredo Police Department and Homeland Security Investigation and Texas Rangers.”
CNN has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security, HSI and the Texas Department of Public Safety.
“It’s a very unfortunate event,” Espinoza told CNN. “It was too many lives that were lost.”
This story has been updated with additional information.
Gov. Greg Abbott on Sunday directed the Texas Division of Emergency Management to activate state emergency response resources as a massive storm system threatens much of the state with hurricane-force winds, giant hail, and the risk of tornadoes.
Severe weather in Texas
The severe weather, expected to last through Monday morning, covers a vast footprint including West, North, East, Central, and South-Central Texas. Forecasters warned the system could produce wind gusts exceeding 75 mph and hail larger than 2 inches in diameter.
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What they’re saying:
“Texas is prepared to confront the severe storms that pose a threat to communities all across our state,” Abbott said in a statement. He urged Texans to monitor local forecasts and warned motorists never to drive through flooded roadways, invoking the phrase, “Turn Around, Don’t Drown.”
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Heavy rainfall is expected to be widespread, with some areas potentially seeing isolated totals of 3 to 6 inches, which could lead to significant flash flooding. As the system progresses, the threat is expected to shift toward the South and Southeast Texas coasts.
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In preparation, the governor has deployed a wide array of state assets to assist local officials, including:
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Search and Rescue: Swiftwater and floodwater rescue boat squads and urban search and rescue teams from Texas A&M Task Forces 1, 2, and 3.
Aviation and Marine Support: Helicopters with hoist capabilities from the Department of Public Safety and Texas Parks and Wildlife, as well as Tactical Marine Units.
Infrastructure and Recovery: Texas Forest Service saw crews to clear debris from roads and Department of Transportation personnel to monitor highway conditions.
Medical and Utility Support: Emergency medical task forces with ambulances and all-terrain vehicles, along with monitors from the Public Utility Commission to coordinate power outage responses.
State agencies are also monitoring the state’s natural gas supply and water quality as the storms move through.
Officials encouraged residents to assemble emergency kits and check road conditions at DriveTexas.org before attempting to travel.
The Source: Information in this article is from the Governor Greg Abbott Press Office.
