Trump Urges States to Send Troops to Texas

Former President Trump has waded into the dispute between Texas and the federal government over razor wire along the Rio Grande, urging states to deploy National Guard members to Texas. "We encourage all willing States to deploy their guards to Texas to prevent the entry of Illegals, and to remove them back across the Border," Trump said in a statement Thursday. The Supreme Court ruled this week that Border Patrol agents could cut wire placed along the border by the Texas National Guard but Texas Gov. Greg Abbott challenged the ruling, saying the Constitution gives the state the right to defend itself against an "invasion," the Texas Tribune reports. He has vowed to install more razor wire.

"We encourage all willing States to deploy their guards to Texas to prevent the entry of Illegals, and to remove them back across the Border," Trump said in a statement Thursday. He accused President Biden of "aiding and abetting a massive Invasion of illegal migrants," the Hill reports. "In the face of this National Security, Public Safety, and Public Health Catastrophe, Texas has rightly invoked the Invasion Clause of the Constitution, and must be given full support to repel the Invasion," Trump wrote. Since the GOP frontrunner "is no longer commander-in-chief, this is just a press release," but it foreshadows the coming general election campaign, Axios notes.

In a statement Wednesday, Abbott called Biden a "lawless president" and said Texas' constitutional authority to defend itself is the "supreme law of the land." Trump is far from the only Republican supporting Abbott against the Biden administration. Some 25 of the 26 Republican governors outside Texas released a statement of solidarity Thursday, the BBC reports. Vermont Gov. Phil Scott was the only holdout. Abbott has also won praise from dozens of congressional Republicans—and been condemned by Democratic lawmakers from his state, the Tribune reports. Abbott "is trying to pick a fight with President Biden to score political points, and he is abusing the National Guard resources at his disposal," said US Rep. Joaquin Castro, a Democrat. (More Texas stories.)