Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's declaration of an invasion at the border was the right decision, but he didn't go far enough to stop the surge of migrants, former acting Customs and Border Parol Commissioner Mark Morgan said Monday.
In an interview on Newsmax's "Wake Up America," Morgan said Abbott should remove the migrants from Texas back to Mexico.
The invasion declaration "now opens up the state's authorities and tools," Morgan said.
"He's not going to be enforcing federal immigration law. What he's going to be doing is using the Constitution to protect his state," Morgan said.
"He's done a lot and, again, more than any other governor. But what we haven't seen yet is for him to avail himself of the one thing under this invasion clause, which is significant — and that's to detain illegal aliens and remove them directly by Texas back to Mexico. That's what needs to be done to really address this crisis, and we haven't seen the governor quite do that."
According to Morgan, there's some consensus that such a move could be done "immediately."
"It's a long overdue," he said. But he warned: "There are some legitimate issues with that. There are concerns that there could be personal liability to attach to those that are Texas [Department of Public Safety] or National Guard — there would actually be in the act of their moving them.
"But there are many legal scholars that say that risk is not there, and that this is exactly what needs to be done. I know the governor's office is reviewing that … but at the end of the day that this is what needs to be done."
Morgan also called the destruction in Juarez, Mexico, of a tent city housing migrants from Venezuela was "optics not substance."
"There's about 6,000 to 7,000 illegal aliens every single day crossing the border the past two years, and the government of Mexico has done nothing," he said. "In fact … what they've done is help facilitate it along with our government … so the question is, Why now?
"I believe that they probably got some intelligence that the 1,000 or so Venezuelans …literally try to invade our border and illegally enter and attack border patrol agents … so to avoid optics — not substance , not just actually secure the border — but to prevent that bad optic."
Morgan also argued the looming end to Title 42 immigration rule in December "sends another message" that illegal entry is tolerated.
"When you have a flood 3 feet or 3.5 feet, it's still a total disaster," he said. "The issue was we've got to reduce that 3 feet of water coming in. That's not what this administration is doing. So the tsunami that we see, the crisis that we see — it's going to continue. It's not going to get better."
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