Border Crisis: Twenty-Two States File Brief Backing Texas

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As America’s escalating border crisis continues to pit the state of Texas against the federal government, South Carolina attorney general Alan Wilson and Ohio attorney general Dave Yost are leading a coalition in support of the Lone Star State.

Wilson and Yost led a 22-state contingent in filing an amicus brief this week with the U.S. fifth circuit court – supporting Texas’ right to secure its border. The filing (.pdf) embraces the constitutionality of S.B. 4 – a Texas statute signed into law by governor Greg Abbott in December. S.B. 4 gives local and state law enforcement agencies in Texas authorization to arrest illegal immigrants inside the Lone Star State – and to deport them.

“The past three years have seen an unprecedented influx of illegal aliens – over nine million – overwhelming the national infrastructure,” the brief argued. “And the crisis has only intensified; last December saw a historic high for illegal alien encounters at the U.S. southern border (over 302,000 that month).”

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According to the brief – which was joined by the attorneys general of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming – states “bear an obligation to their citizens to address the attendant public crisis.”

“There are no signs of abatement,” the brief continued, arguing the 22 states supporting Texas “bear the brunt of the significant economic, health and public safety issues generated by this mass migration crisis and the federal government’s failure to adequately enforce national immigration laws.”

U.S. president Joe Biden halted construction of a border wall upon taking office, actively circumvented immigration law and recently endorsed mass amnesty for illegal aliens.

“Joe Biden has created a border crisis of historic proportions,” Wilson said in a news release accompanying the filing of the brief. “Texas’s state law banning illegal immigration is absolutely Constitutional, and I’m glad to lead a coalition to defend it.”

“States have a right to enforce their own laws – especially when federal inaction leads to a crisis like the one at the Southern border,” Yost said in his office’s release.

Yost further argued citizens of his state “shouldn’t have to pay the price for failed immigration policies.”

Biden has recently pivoted on this issue, but it

According to the latest data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency, a shocking 7.3 million southwest land border encounters have been recorded since Biden took office in 2021. That total does not include the millions of “got-aways” – or illegal immigrants whose crossings are observed but who are never detained. It also fails to include the number of undetected illegal alien crossings at the border.

Tensions on the issue exacerbated late last month when nursing student Laken Riley was murdered while running on the University of Georgia campus, allegedly by an illegal immigrant from Venezuela.

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THE BRIEF …

(S.C. Attorney General)

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …

Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina and before that he was a bass guitarist and dive bar bouncer. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and seven (soon to be eight) children.

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