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Notes -
Texas Border Flareup... Again
https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/23/23A607/295564/20240112012220571_23a607%20DHS%20v%20TX%20supplement.pdf
Texas has seized a public park in Eagle Pass to take control of a 2.5 mile stretch of the border(https://www.cbsnews.com/news/texas-blocks-federal-border-agents-processing-migrants-eagle-pass-shelby-park/). This is a bigger deal than it seems; the only boat launch and main surveillance point for miles is located there, effectively preventing border patrol from operating over a relatively wider frontage.
Context
The State of Texas has long been adding concertina wire to the border to prevent crossings, and has been accusing the federal government of cutting it to allow migrants to cross. Recently Texas won an injunction in court blocking the federal government from doing this, and the federal government has of course appealed, but the injunction includes an exception for if cutting the wire is necessary to assist migrants experiencing a medical emergency.
So Texas seized the main surveillance point and boat launch(in this sector) for the border patrol to prevent them seeing migrants experiencing a medical emergency. For the record, I don't trust the federal government with this "medical emergency" exception either, but this is flatly illegal in, well, pretty much every way you approach it.
https://news4sanantonio.com/news/trouble-shooters/texas-blocks-border-patrol-from-entering-key-area-for-illegal-crossings
Of course the border patrol union is siding with Abbott, which would make it awkward for fedgov if they cared. Although Abbott's justification has nothing to do with the border patrol union's:
And anecdotally his fundraising emails are talking a lot more about state sovereignty than normal. It led to a twitter breakdown by Gina Hinojosa(head of the Texas democrats) accusing him of being a secessionist, and the admittedly low chance of Gina Hinojosa of all people meming Texas independence into the political mainstream through the power of negative partisanship is kind of hilarious.
But back to the topic at hand; it's unclear what Abbott's actual game is; he's an accomplished constitutional lawyer(literally; that's how he became governor) and knows he's going to lose at court. He's also never been the reckless type and so it's unlikely he did this without thinking it through. Angling for a Trump cabinet seat, maybe? It also surprises me that he did this now; primaries are coming up in March, and Abbott endorsed a relatively wide array of candidates to try to shift the house in a more partisan republican direction; taking a political risk like this one is unlike him.
The only question the right needs to be asking is this:
What will it take (institutionally, legally, even diplomatically) to effect mass deportation of 10m + illegals? They need to be rounded up, processed and removed without successful injunction or legal challenges for this to occur. This is the only viable deterrent and the only viable way to ‘close’ the border. If you don’t deport, everything else is worthless. Large transit camps, mandatory nationwide enhanced e-verify with prison sentences for employer noncompliance (all the way up and down the chain of command), roadblocks in all major cities to root out illegal migrants with immediate deportation if unable to prove citizenship and - most importantly of all - an end to birthright citizenship to kill the incentive.
Trump spent a long time saying it should happen. But even he didn’t dare even propose the mechanism by which it would happen, and if there’s any reason (above all else) for pessimism on this issue, it’s that.
I doubt you could implement this in a way that has any non-zero chance of a false positive.
Liberal democracies will accept occasionally jailing the innocent, but they will not accept deporting a citizen.
US police kill citizens semi-randomly all the time, yet the US still has police. In practice people are fine with false positives and trade-offs. There are those who died of COVID vaccine injuries, yet that didn't stop the rollout.
As the saying goes, the optimal amount of a bad outcome is not zero.
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