"I invoked the Invasion Clauses of the US and Texas Constitutions to fully authorize Texas to take unprecedented measures to defend our state against an invasion," Abbott wrote on Twitter.
Although the directives in the order have already been underway for quite some time now, Abbott said his order deploys National Guardsmen and state police officers to the Texas-Mexico border with the authority to arrest illegal migrants.
Moreover, Abbott said, through the order, he can build additional border wall, deploy gun boats on the Rio Grande river, designate Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations, boost cooperation with other US states to address illegal migration, and enter into agreement with foreign countries such as Mexico to enhance border security.
According to US Customs and Border Protection, Border Patrol agents made 230,678 arrests of illegal migrants on the US southern border in October, which marks the start of fiscal year 2023. During the same period last year, nearly 165,000 arrests were made on the southern border.
Well over two million migrants have entered the United States illegally via the US southern border in the fiscal year 2022, breaking last year's record set under the Biden administration's watch. Some organizations like the Federation for American Immigration Reform have claimed that the number of illegal immigrants that entered the country exceeds five million.