Daniel Miller felt encouraged last week, as fears of a new civil war trended online and a coalition of powerful Republicans coalesced behind Gov. Greg Abbott’s standoff with the Biden administration.
As the longtime leader of Texas’ unlikely secessionist movement, Miller has for decades argued that the state is in a stranglehold by the federal government that, eventually, would prompt enough popular support for a vote to leave the union. The past week only reinforced that belief.
“It validates and confirms the position we’ve had all along, which is that if Texas ever wants to truly secure its border … the only way we’re going to do it is as an independent and self-governing nation,” Miller said in an interview.
At issue is the 47-acre Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, where Texas has for months been laying concertina wire along the Rio Grande to prevent migrants from crossing. In a 5-4 decision early last week, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with the Biden administration, allowing U.S. Border Patrol agents to cut the wire to apprehend people who had crossed the river.
The narrowly written decision — which didn’t speak to whether the state had to stop laying new concertina wire — has emboldened Abbott, who vowed to continue his fight against the high court and federal government, citing Texas’ right to defend itself from what he claims is an “invasion” of migrants.
By week’s end — and as the Texas National Guard and state troopers continued to roll out wire and stifle federal agents’ access to much of the park — Abbott’s defiant calls were backed by 25 Republican governors, former President Donald Trump, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson and nearly all of Texas’ congressional delegation.
The calls for Texas to defend itself and defy the federal government have set fire to a long simmering fight over states’ rights, emboldening right-wing figures small and large, from secessionists like Miller to far-right militias and a convoy of protesters from across the country that are currently en route to the border.
This week, the Texas Military Department — which oversees the Texas state and national guard — also began flying the “Come and Take It” flag from the Battle of Gonzales outside its Austin headquarters.
“Everyone in power, from the White House, to the hedge fund managers, to the Supreme Court of the United States has decided to destroy the country by allowing it to be invaded,” former Fox News star Tucker Carlson wrote last week to his 11.3 million followers on X, formerly known as Twitter. “That leaves the population to defend itself. Where are the men of Texas? Why aren’t they protecting their state and the nation?”
The standoff comes amid a recent and growing acceptance of political violence: October polling from the Public Religion Research Institute found that nearly 1 in 4 Americans agree that “patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country,” up from 15 percent in 2021, when the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection prompted PRRI to begin asking the question. Roughly one-third of Republicans and white evangelical Protestants agreed with that sentiment, compared to 13% of independents and 7% of Democrats.
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