Top Arizona GOP lawmakers sign letter calling Texas migrant arrivals 'an invasion'
Some GOP lawmakers in Arizona are throwing their support behind Texas — where state and federal agencies are engulfed in a legal dispute over concertina wire placed along parts of the international border with Mexico.
Arizona House Speaker Ben Toma and Senate President Warren Peterson are part of a letter to President Joe Biden in response to the U.S.’s efforts in Texas, signed by 26 attorneys general from non-border states.
They say the U.S. is facing a border crisis that the Biden administration has failed to stop. And Texas has the right to defend itself against what they call "an invasion."
Texas began placing concertina wire across various parts of the border with Mexico last year — one of several hardline deterrence measures undertaken by the state. Texas sued the federal government after Border Patrol agents began cutting the razor wire to reach the border to conduct enforcement activities and aid migrants. The case ended up in the Supreme Court this year, where judges ruled federal officers are allowed to continue cutting the wire for now.
Back in 2022, then-Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey also argued a shipping container wall built illegally on federal land should be able to stay to protect Arizona from an invasion. The container wall was challenged in federal court and later decommissioned at the expense of Arizona taxpayers.
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