Gov. Abbott throws down the gauntlet:
"The Executive Branch of the United States has a constitutional duty to enforce federal laws protecting States, including immigration laws on the books right now," reads the statement. "President Biden has instructed his agencies to ignore federal statutes that mandate the detention of illegal immigrants. The failure of the Biden Administration to fulfill the duties imposed by Article IV, § 4 has triggered Article I, § 10, Clause 3, which reserves to this State the right of self-defense. For these reasons, I have already declared an invasion under Article I, § 10, Clause 3 to invoke Texas’s constitutional authority to defend and protect itself. That authority is the supreme law of the land and supersedes any federal statutes to the contrary."
He has slightly overstated this:
No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded,
Texas is free to go to war if invaded. Whether this qualifies as an invasion in a legal sense is hard to tell. I do agree that if we are going to engage in a nit-picking use of legal definitions then the Court needs to deal with Art. II, § 3 as well which identifies the President's duties:
he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed
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