I personally think Abbot is playing political games and always has. He’s had the resources since day one to secure the Texas border. There are tens of thousands of Texas citizens that are just waiting to defend their state. Desperate times call for desperate measures.
“There are tens of thousands of Texas citizens that are just waiting to defend their state.”
Even as a child watching “Batman” on TV, I understood that no government official would call on someone who does not report to him for help. The public would instantly know the official was incompetent and demand a replacement. If a governor was to send untrained and unsupervised citizens to do some job. It would cause a million lawsuits as, imagine what, say, a bunch of bikers might do to someone crossing the border.
As for the governor of Texas sending the national guard, they most likely are not trained for civilian arrests. As I understand it DeSantis is also sending 300 law enforcement officers. I’m guessing they will perform arrests and the guard are there for security as some of those arrestees will be carrying machine guns. I’m presuming the governors are all communicating and coordinating. But the problem arises, what to do with detainees. They must be clothed, fed and medicated. This will run into the millions of dollars in just a month. Also, that’s a lot of men who are not at home working or caring for their families. Not sure where this is headed as the federal government has jurisdiction and if the feds simply let the arrestees go, what’s the purpose?