Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott brushed off the legal action against him and his state, telling Newsmax that the U.S. Constitution gives Texas the right to defend itself against an open border and that the Biden administration itself gives migrants the right to travel wherever they want in the United States.
Texas was sued again by the Department of Justice on Wednesday. And on Thursday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams sued Texas bus companies for busing migrants to their desired location. In both cases, Abbott said, they should have consulted the law first.
Which is why, Abbott told “Eric Bolling The Balance” on Thursday, Adams is going to “lose badly” in his $708 million lawsuit.
“I know the law, and Eric Adams does not know the law,” Abbott said. “The commerce clause to the United States Constitution, as well as a United States Supreme Court-recognized doctrine of the right to travel, means that once the Biden administration has authorized these migrants to be in the United States, they have the constitutional right to travel to New York City.
“So what Eric Adams is doing is filing a baseless lawsuit denying these migrants of their right to travel to New York City. He’s going to lose and lose badly, and I hope he’s forced to pay attorney’s fees,” Abbott said.
Further, migrants’ choosing to travel to New York or some other sanctuary city relieves the congestion in small Texas towns caused by Biden’s border policies, he said.
“Before we put these migrants onto buses or planes, they are admitted into the United States by the Biden administration, given papers to be able to travel anywhere in the United States, and they voluntarily choose to go to New York or Chicago or Denver or these other places; so we are moving them to the location they want to go to so that we can relieve the congestion in small little towns like Eagle Pass and Del Rio and others,” Abbott said.
“New York City is far larger and has far more resources. And so we are moving people away from the border into areas that are self-declared sanctuary cities,” he added.
And then there’s the Biden administration, which sued Texas again on Wednesday, this time claiming it’s illegal for the state to arrest illegal immigrants.
“If Joe Biden spent as much time securing the border as he is suing the state of Texas, we would actually have a secure border,” Abbott said.
The Biden administration also petitioned the Supreme Court to allow Border Patrol agents to cut the razor wire installed by Texas.
“Biden is trying to sue us … and me personally for signing a law that would make it illegal for somebody to come into our country illegally,” Abbott said. “We will continue to fight this fight because … Texas has a legal right under Article 4, Section 4 of the Constitution, under Article 1 Section 10 of the Constitution to defend itself from the open border policies caused by the Biden administration.”
