Alamo 2.0

You armchair historians undoubtedly know that on April 21, 1836 the Texan Army under Sam Houston attacked Santa Anna's army on the banks of the San Jacinto River with cries of "Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad! God and Texas!" The battle, which lasted a mere eighteen minutes, marked a resounding victory for the avenging Texans.

The Alamo reference was captured in that classic “documentary” Davy Crockett: King Of the Wild Frontier which highlighted the back story. Accept no substitutes for that 1955 account as it captured the important details of how that that coonskin-capped, bear out-grinning frontiersman and his trusty sidekick, James “Jim” Bowie, made their last stand along with those other 180 selfless patriots as they faced Santa Anna's 6,000 troops marching north near the Rio Grande. It is with the deepest gratitude, of course, that we mark how they sacrificed their very lives for the sake of a noble ending: a revolution was won; a Republic was born.

Okay, we might skip over the next 188 years – how this slave-holding Republic was finally annexed by the U.S. in 1845 which triggered the Mexican-American War – and get to the good part, itself worthy of a Disney epilogue: Texas Governor Greg Abbott and his state militia up against a different set of federales, our U.S. Government.

The Texas National Guard, you see, took control of a local park which illegal immigrants had been using as a landing zone after crossing the Rio Grande. The state erected razor wire along miles of the river and encouraged strategically situated private property owners to do the same, all in the name of blocking this “undocumented” entry. Not so fast, said the Biden administration, suggesting it has the authority to nationalize the Texas National Guard and order the state to desist in its blockage effort. The Supreme Court has now weighed in on the question as the legal battle plays out in a lower court.

The so-called Eagle Pass confrontation has meanwhile reached a boiling point with Governor Abbott’s proclamation that the state’s constitutional authority is the supreme law of the jurisdiction and supersedes any federal statutes to the contrary. At last count twenty-five other states have signaled their solidarity with Texas (btw, Colorado is not one of them, why not?).

The federales seem to be backing off for the time being but it’s just a matter of time before The People wake up, recognize the national implications, and, from a low rumble comes the ever-louder taunt “Remember Eagle Pass!” Or so the Disney fantasy might have it.

Let us frame our discussion as simply a policy matter – after all, we’re not constitutional scholars – to simply ask whether a country is a country without some sort of active border control. More specifically, given that water seeks its own level, are we really prepared for an economic dislocation that foreshadows a standard of living at the level of the world (or emigrating countries)?

Maybe consider this one data point: Denver is projecting ten percent of its budget now diverted to accommodate over thirty (now forty) thousand Venezuelan immigrants transplanted to or through the city (Denver Migrant Influx). Nationwide, the border patrol registered three hundred and seventy thousand “encounters” in December alone. The polls suggest the perceived open border is now the country’s number one issue (Immigration Top Issue). Yet the issue seems to remain stuck at the typical “political” level.

Given a country’s failure to actively defend its border (arguably) represents an existential risk, what forces might be at work to account for this apparent national suicide?