In the latest example of Governor Abbott stealing policy proposals from the Texas Nationalist Movement, he has announced his desire to challenge a 40-year-old Supreme Court decision related to illegal immigration.
One month ago, as of this writing, Gov. Abbott dove into the Texas Nationalist Movement (TNM) archives to steal an idea first proposed almost 12 years ago by the organization. That idea was the bussing of illegal immigrants to Washington DC to force federal politicians to deal with a crisis of their creation. Although it is a decade too late, suited only for a private organization, and watered down to the point of irrelevance, it is now an official policy of the State of Texas.
The Governor must have a dedicated staffer whose job it is to find good ideas generated by the TNM and then find a mainstream news outlet that will let him go on taking credit for his “bold” stance against the federal government.
This time, appearing on the Joe “Pags” show, the governor suggested that he “will resurrect… Plyler v. Doe”. For those not familiar with the 1982 case, it involved the Superintendent of the Tyler Independent School District, who tried to deny funds to schools that enrolled children of illegal immigrants. Ultimately, the school district lost the case when the Supreme Court ruled that policy violated the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution.
It does not take a deep knowledge of public policy or a degree in mathematics to realize that this 40-year-old violation of Texas’s sovereignty has put an undue financial strain on our state. The burden is even greater now that illegal crossings are at record levels.
This time, Governor Abbott must have shoved his assistant into the “Way Back Machine” and set the dials to 2014. In July of 2014, the TNM was deeply embroiled in a years-long fight with Texas politicians over an independence vote and the border crisis that motivated a substantial amount of support for TEXIT. As part of our advocacy work, the TNM held a “National Day of Action” aimed at the-Governor Rick Perry. A key component of our call to action was for Governor Rick Perry to directly “challenge Plyler v Doe by denying admission to public schools of illegal aliens.”
This TNM policy echoed a campaign proposal that featured prominently in TNM President Daniel Miller’s campaign for State Representative in 2012 and again in his campaign for Lieutenant Governor in 2022.
We have to ask, “what has changed at the Governor’s office?”
It is suddenly evident that Gov. Abbott has started to adopt some of the TNM’s policies. To blatantly lift two ideas from the TNM in a month is certainly flattering, but since the Governor is becoming such a fan of the TNM’s work, we could propose a few more that he could implement.
First, Abbott needs to cut out the middleman. Save the people of Texas some money, get rid of whoever is copying our work and passing it off as theirs, and call the TNM directly. We’ll be glad to advise you on the best course of action for actual “Texas First” policies.
Second, and most importantly, Texas must remove the Federal Government from the equation entirely. Since the Governor seems willing to let the TNM take the lead, he should call a special session specifically to pass the Texas Independence Referendum Act, publicly declare his support for TEXIT, and put the question of independence to the people. After all, the ties to Washington lock Texas into the dysfunctional Supreme Court, including the harmful Plyler v Doe decision. When Texas becomes fully independent, Texans could best decide how to spend our money, secure our border, and deal with immigration.
It’s time for elected officials to stop playing at independence and work with us to make it a reality.
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