On Friday, federal District court Judge David Alan Ezra once again rejected Texas’s argument that illegal migration qualifies as an “invasion” authorizing the state to “engage in war” response, under Article I, § 10, Clause 3 of the Constitution, which states that “No State shall, without the Consent of Congress … engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.”
This ruling is the latest phase of the ongoing litigation in United States v. Abbott over the legality of Texas’s actions in placing water buoys to block a part of the Rio Grande River. The federal government claims this violates the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899. Texas claims it does not, but but also argues that the Invasion Clause gives the state the power to install the buoys even if it would otherwise violate federal law, due to the fact that illegal migration and drug smuggling qualify as invasion.
Judge Ezra previously rejected this invasion theory in a September ruling where he issued a preliminary injunction against the state. That decision was affirmed by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit but is currently en banc review before…
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