By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Editor’s Note: On Thursday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott authorized state authorities to return migrants that are apprehended back to the border. Those state authorities include the Texas National Guard and Texas Department of Public Safety, both of which have been heavily present at various ports of entry along the Texas/Mexico border, including here in Val Verde County, for the past year. Abbott’s executive order did not include the term “invasion” in its wording.
BRACKETTVILLE – Unprecedented levels of illegal immigration, human trafficking and drug smuggling constitute an invasion of the state and of Kinney County, Kinney County Judge Tully Shahn said Tuesday.
Shahan on Tuesday signed and filed a “declaration of local state of disaster” and announced the move hours later in a closed press conference in the Kinney County Convention Center. Several south Texas county judges, mayors and sheriffs attended the event, as did about 75 journalists from across the nation, state and region.
Shahan’s “declaration of local state of disaster” was presented in an information packet given to each journalist attending the event. The packet also included a press release about the declaration and a photo taken outside a Brackettville school, showing large boulders placed along the roadway outside to protect the building from vehicles fleeing law enforcement.
In his declaration, Shahan wrote, “The health, safety and welfare of Kinney County residents is under an imminent threat of disaster from the unprecedented levels of illegal immigration, human trafficking and drug smuggling coming across the U.S. border from Mexico.”
Shahan charged that “since January 2021, more than 3.2 million illegal aliens have been apprehended after unlawfully entering the United States.”
“More than 800,000 illegal aliens have avoided apprehension while unlawfully entering the United States and remain unaccounted for within our nation. So far this year, CBP (Customs and Border Protection) has identified more than 50 known terrorists who have unlawfully entered the United States through our unsecured border with Mexico,” Shahan wrote, citing published CBP statistics.
Shahan also charged that government statistics show “the unprecedented amount of human trafficking, combined with the smuggling of fentanyl and other opioids infiltrating our border with Mexico has killed over 71,238 American citizens.”
“The sophisticated human smuggling and drug trafficking organizations that facilitate these criminal acts are spearheaded by violent international drug cartels who have operational control over our unsecured U.S./Mexico border,” Shahan wrote, adding that during May, “Kinney County law enforcement documented over 4,000 illegal aliens who avoided apprehension by Border Patrol and whose whereabouts are currently unknown.”
Shahan said he has determined “extraordinary measures must be taken to ensure the protection of the health, safety and welfare of county residents.”
Shahan wrote the published facts “ . . . constitute – among other things – an invasion of Kinney County, Texas, as the term ‘invasion’ is used in . . . the U.S. Constitution and in . . . the Texas Constitution.”
The declaration then calls on the Texas governor, as the commander-in-chief of the state’s military forces, to “declare the existence of an invasion on its border and take necessary actions to preserve and protect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Texas” and “to immediately prevent and/or remove all persons invading the sovereignty of Texas and of the United States.”
Shahan opened Tuesday’s press conference by telling journalists that other county judges “are contemplating filing” similar declarations for their own counties.
While fielding questions from journalists following the event, Shahan said the declaration does not allow for any additional steps to be taken by local law enforcement. He said a state declaration of invasion would allow the Texas governor to send troops to the border, although he did not elaborate on how he felt those troops should be used.
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