County Officials In Texas To Declare Border Crisis An ‘Invasion’

County officials in Texas are set to declare an invasion at the southern border Monday afternoon, Kinney County Spokesman Matt Benacci told The Daily Caller News Foundation.

The judges, mayors, attorneys and sheriffs in Uvalde, Kinney and Goliad counties are set to urge Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to join them, but the governor is not yet involved in the effort, according to a Texas county spokesman with knowledge of the situation who spoke anonymously with The Daily Caller News Foundation because they weren’t authorized to speak.

Abbott was considering making the declaration, according to an April report from The New York Times.

The U.S. Constitution states that states have the right to protect themselves from an invasion.

“The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence,” Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution states.

In addition to Article IV, Section 4, another clause of the Constitution states grants states the ability to declare war against an “invasion.”

The group worked with the Center for Renewing America, a conservative organization led by former Trump administration officials, to make the declaration.

“For the first time in U.S. history, several counties in Texas, outside of Congress, have declared an invasion–a Constitutional solution we have been advocating for over a year,” former Trump administration officials Russ Vought and Ken Cuccinelli, both affiliated with the Center for Renewing America, said in a joint statement Monday.

“While it is unfortunate the Biden Administration has aided and abetted the destruction at the border and put Americans last on the world stage, we’re proud to stand with the history-making county judges, sheriffs and attorneys who didn’t rely on the Federal government, or even the governor to protect their families, ranches, and communities. We ask Governor Abbott to follow the example set by the leaders in Goliad, Kinney, and Uvalde counties and stop with media gimmicks and treat the invasion of American sovereignty as such,” they added.

Cuccinelli and Republican Texas Rep. Chip Roy will join the local officials at Monday’s meeting, according to a press release shared with TheDCNF.

“To the ‘it’s not an invasion crowd,’ heavily armed Mexican cartels are pushing human beings & fentanyl for profit into America in violation of our sovereignty while expanding their reach into Texas at the expense, increased danger, & harm to Texans. #EndTheInvasion” Roy wrote on Twitter.

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The looming announcement comes after 53 migrants died that were being smuggled from the Texas-Mexico border. Authorities discovered an 18-wheeler full of migrants that were suffering from heat-related injuries on June 27, San Antonio fire department chief Charles Hood previously said.

Neither Abbott’s office nor the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) responded to TheDCNF’s requests for comment.

Blake Mauro contributed to this report.