At Texans for Strong Borders, we have been talking about the invasion at our border since our founding in 2022. Yesterday in El Paso, the invasion took another concerning turn.
Yesterday afternoon, New York Post reporter Jennie Taer posted video on 𝕏 from James Breeden showing a group of dozens of illegal aliens making a gap in the concertina wire barriers placed by the Texas National Guard and rushing several guardsmen and eventually breaking through before being stopped at the larger border wall behind.
This is the moment when TX National Guard became overrun by migrants rioting to get across the border here in El Paso today
— Jennie Taer (@JennieSTaer) March 21, 2024
We were there and saw it all happen. Absolute chaos here. pic.twitter.com/VN6Kf663ie
The five guardsmen in the gap opened up by the illegal aliens can be seen ordering the crowd to get back and apparently holding their weapons at the ready. While some further back in the crowd put their hands in the air, several men at the front of the crowd appear to grab the guardsmen’s rifles while others rushed past.
Hours later, Texas Governor Greg Abbott posted on 𝕏 that all of the illegal aliens involved had been arrested and that the situation was under control.
About the surge of illegal immigrants in El Paso:
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) March 21, 2024
The TX National Guard & Dept. of Public Safety quickly regained control & are redoubling the razor wire barriers.
DPS is instructed to arrest every illegal immigrant involved for criminal trespass & destruction of property.
However, many border security groups, including us, speculated that if handed over to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for processing, many of these illegal aliens would be released on their own recognizance into the interior of our country, even after breaking down border barriers and assaulting Texas National Guardsmen.
This was confirmed earlier today by Taer herself during an appearance on Fox News with former White House Press Secretary Dana Perino:
Wow: @JennieSTaer just confirmed to @DanaPerino that many of these single adults who assaulted National Guardsmen and rushed the wall were later processed and released into the interior. https://t.co/7H0zfVMaRi pic.twitter.com/tTHbcckTVx
— John Cooper (@thejcoop) March 22, 2024
This sequence of events creates an unacceptable posture for Texas forces at the border. If illegal aliens are set free after breaching our border, breaking down barriers, and even grabbing the weapons of National Guardsmen who are attempting to repel entry, more will try to attempt this in the future. Unless Texas DPS officers and National Guardsmen are allowed to use force to mediate such encounters, this could set up a situation leading to injury or death for the illegal aliens, Texas personnel, or both.
A variety of non-lethal riot-control tactics and devices could be employed to deter and manage these kinds of encounters, but the grim reality is that enforcement of laws always comes with a threat of deadly force if the situation escalates out of control. Without such a threat, borders themselves are completely meaningless. Indeed, the very policies enacted by the Biden Administration that emboldened these illegal aliens to charge armed Texas soldiers are a reminder that lax or inconsistent enforcement of the law will necessarily lead to lawlessness.
If Governor Abbott is serious about stepping into the gap left by the federal government and protecting the sovereign territory of our state, he must allow our state’s forces to deploy force in an escalating fashion that allows them to protect their own lives and the lives of others. Otherwise, our law enforcement officers and guardsmen on the line may be put in grave danger as word of this incident spreads.
No sane person wants to see a disproportionate exercise of force result in the serious injury or death of an illegal alien attempting to cross our border. At the same time, the perverse set of incentives set up by the Biden Administration have resulted in a border crisis that is deadly on all sides.
Many illegal aliens who are lured by the promise of being released into the United States without fear of deportation have died on the journey to the United States, and many more have been assaulted, raped, and forced into labor and sex trafficking. And in recent weeks, we have heard the horror stories of American citizens who have been brutally victimized by illegal aliens who have been improperly released. The most notable of these cases is the recent murder of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, whose alleged killer entered the United States just outside of El Paso and was paroled into the United States despite his affiliation with the deadly Tren de Agua Venezuelan prison gang.
Citizens should demand that their public officials provide answers as to how situations like these will be prevented in the future and what measures will be undertaken to end the invasion at our border. At Texans for Strong Borders, we will always strive to educate the public and provide policy solutions that will not only achieve this end, but eliminate incentives driving illegal immigration, reinforce the importance of citizenship, and build an immigration system that puts the interests of Americans first.