Texas Republicans say Biden’s border policies created an “invasion” as they push measure giving states power to secure borders independently

The effort, led by Rep. Jodey Arrington of Texas and now fully backed by the U.S. House’s Texas GOP Caucus, centers around the claim that former President Joe Biden’s immigration policies created conditions so severe that border states faced what Republicans describe as an “invasion” or “imminent danger.”

The resolution, known as H.Res. 50, was originally introduced in 2021 during the height of the border crisis under the Biden administration. Texas Republicans revived support for the measure this week, saying it is necessary to prevent future administrations from blocking states like Texas from taking aggressive action at the southern border.

Republicans argue that millions of illegal crossings, cartel activity, drug trafficking, and fentanyl deaths exposed what they view as failures by the federal government to carry out its constitutional duties.

“It is the job of elected officials to protect the Americans that sent them to office,” Rep. Brandon Gill said in a statement.

“Unfortunately, we’ve seen Democrat leaders willfully facilitate a border invasion time and time again. States ought to be able to step in and secure the border when federal government cannot or will not do so. I am proud to join the Texas GOP Caucus in standing up for the American people.”

Republicans Push Constitutional Argument

At the center of the debate is a rarely discussed section of the Constitution.

The resolution argues that Article I, Section 10 gives states sovereign authority to defend themselves from “invasion” or “imminent danger” if the federal government refuses to fulfill its obligations under Article IV, Section 4.

That interpretation would dramatically expand state power over immigration enforcement, an area courts — including the Supreme Court — have historically treated as primarily controlled by the federal government.

Arrington said the resolution is designed not only to respond to past immigration issues, but to prepare for the possibility that another Democratic administration could weaken border enforcement again in the future.

“What we want to avoid is what happened during the four years of the Biden administration, which is, we had a bunch of states being overrun and overwhelmed with illegal immigration and all the various problems that occurred as a result. We didn’t have a federal government that was doing its job and, in fact, we had a federal government that was obstructing states like Texas from actually filling the gap that they left because they abdicated that responsibility,” Arrington said.

The congressman pointed to fentanyl trafficking as one of the biggest reasons Texas Republicans believe stronger state authority is necessary.

“The drugs were killing hundreds of thousands, they were killing a plane load of American citizens every week,” Arrington said. “They killed over 100,000 Americans in one year, which is more than we lost in the Vietnam War. When you’re losing more American citizens to what is tantamount to chemical warfare from the Mexican terrorist drug cartels, in close cooperation with the Chinese who were providing the precursor material for synthetic fentanyl, that was the greatest and most imminent threat to our nation during those four years.”

Texas GOP Caucus Chairman Nathaniel Moran also defended the resolution, arguing that the Constitution was specifically designed to allow states to defend themselves in emergencies.

“The Framers understood that a state cannot be left at the mercy of a federal government that refuses to do its job when there’s an invasion at its border,” Moran said.

“That’s why Article I, Section 10 exists — and that’s exactly the situation Texas and our border states faced for four years under the Biden administration. H.Res. 50 affirms what the Constitution already guarantees: states have every right to defend its citizens. The Texas GOP Caucus is united in ensuring that right is recognized and preserved.”

Legal Battle Over Texas Immigration Powers Intensifies

The renewed push comes while Texas is already locked in a major legal fight over Senate Bill 4, one of the toughest state immigration laws in the country.

The law allows Texas police officers to arrest migrants suspected of illegally crossing the border and gives state judges authority to order certain migrants to leave the country.

After months of court battles, the law is expected to take effect next week after a federal appeals court removed a previous block on enforcement. However, the appeals court did not settle the broader constitutional dispute surrounding the measure.

Civil rights organizations immediately responded with new lawsuits.

The Texas Civil Rights Project, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the ACLU of Texas filed emergency legal action this week seeking to stop portions of the law before implementation begins on May 15.

The groups argue immigration enforcement belongs exclusively to the federal government and say Texas is attempting to override federal authority.

Cody Wofsy of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project called the law “cruel and illegal,” promising the organizations “will keep fighting it until it is permanently struck down.”

“Every court to have reached the merits of laws like S.B. 4 has found them to be unconstitutional,” he added.

Even some conservative legal experts acknowledge the constitutional challenge Texas faces.

Former Justice Department official John Yoo said Supreme Court precedent generally prevents states from interfering with federal immigration authority. However, he suggested congressional findings about “imminent danger” could strengthen Texas’ legal position.

“The Constitution, as interpreted by the Supreme Court, forbids states from interfering with the federal government’s monopoly over our territorial sovereignty,” Yoo said. “But the House of Representatives could make its own findings of fact that failures at the border rose to the level of an ‘imminent danger’ that would justify a state’s exercise of self-defense.”

As the legal and political fight grows larger, Texas is increasingly becoming the center of a national battle over how far states can go when confronting immigration issues on their own.