(The Center Square) – Tyler County in deep East Texas has declared an invasion at the southern border, becoming the 10th county to do so.
The county did so after an ongoing discussion among southeast Texas judges and U.S. Rep. Brian Babin, the former mayor of Woodville, Tyler County Judge Jacques Blanchette said.
Babin represents the 36th Congressional District, which includes Tyler County, and its county seat of Woodville, a small east Texas town named after the governor of Texas from 1847-1849.
Blanchette and all four county commissioners – Joe Blacksher, Stevan Sturrock, Mike Marshall and Buck Hudson – voted for the resolution and signed it, “calling for additional measures to secure the border, stop the invasion at the border, and protect our communities.”
The resolution states that the preamble to the U.S. Constitution outlines the chief responsibility of the federal government is to “insure domestic tranquility” and “provide for the common defense.”
It also cites Article 4 of the U.S. Constitution, which states, “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against invasion,” and Article IV, Section 7 of the Texas Constitution, which states the governor of Texas “shall be Commander-in-Chief of the military forces of the State, except when they are called in actual service of the United States. He shall have power to call forth the militia to execute the laws of the State, to suppress insurrections, and to repel invasions.”
The resolution declares that cartels are acting as paramilitary, narco-terrorist organizations profiting from trafficking people and drugs and that Tyler County has a major health and public safety issue with methamphetamines. The influx of drugs “greatly impact our communities, our families, our jail, our court system, and other local resources,” the resolution states. It cites the hundreds of thousands of pounds of methamphetamines that U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents have seized at the southern border as the source of the origin of the drugs pouring into Tyler County.
The Tyler County Commissioner’s Court “desires to express its support” for numerous Texas border counties “experiencing local disaster situations as a result of inadequate border security,” and to “express its desire for stronger border security measures, which impact all of our Texas communities.”
The resolution states that “our southern Texas border is suffering an invasion; and recognizes and affirms the sovereign and unilateral authority explicitly reserved to the Sates, respectively, under Article 1, Section 10 of the United States Constitution and Article IV, Section 7 of the Texas Constitution to defend themselves against an invasion, which has been exacerbated by the Federal Government’s failure in meeting its constitutional obligation to ‘insure domestic tranquility,’ ‘provide for the common defense,’ ‘execute the laws,’ and ‘protect each (State) against invasion.’”
Tyler County also expressed its support of Gov. Greg Abbott’s multi-agency border security effort, Operation Lone Star, and has requested him to “take necessary steps as allowed under Article 1, Section 10 of the U.S. Constitution and Article IV, Section 7 of the Texas Constitution to “secure the Texas border and stop the invasion at the border, including the actions by paramilitary, narco-terrorist cartels that pose a huge risk to our communities.”
Tyler County is the tenth county to declare an invasion at the southern border and more are expected to follow. The Republican Party of Texas declared an invasion just days before Tyler County did.
Kinney, Goliad, Terrell, Edwards, and Presidio counties and the city of Uvalde were the first to declare an invasion at the southern border on July 5. Jeff Davis County’s judge had issued a declaration July 6 but its county commissioners didn’t vote in favor of it. Uvalde County had expressed interest in declaring an invasion but has yet to do so.
Next to issue invasion declarations were Parker, Atascosa and Wise counties, expressing solidarity with Kinney County and other border counties.
Kinney County Attorney Brent Smith, who’s led the movement among the counties, told The Center Square that “the significance of other counties also declaring an invasion cannot be overstated.”
Every county is threatened “by the federal government’s abandonment of its constitutional duty,” Smith argues, which is why he’s encouraging every county in Texas “to acknowledge the crisis is an invasion.” There are 254 counties in Texas.
“If Texans don’t save Texas, no one will,” he said.
