Texas is building a new military base for National Guard members deployed to the southern border in Eagle Pass, Texas — where state and federal authorities have been in a tense conflict over dealing with immigration — Gov. Greg Abbott said.
At a news conference on Friday, Abbott announced the construction of what he said would a new “base camp” that could house up to 2,300 soldiers.
“As opposed to being scattered around many different places across this region, they will be operating out of one place. It will amass a large army in a very strategic area. It will increase the speed and flexibility of the Texas National Guard to be able to respond to crossings,” Abbott said.
Officials expect that by mid-April they’ll have a 300-bed capacity and will add another 300 each month until completion, Texas Maj. Gen. Thomas Suelzer, Abbott’s top military adviser, said at the Friday press conference. The camp will include several features like large dining halls, individual rooms for soldiers and medical care facilities.
The move may also deepen the tension between the state and federal governments as Abbott continues to implement his own strategies to deter migrants from crossing in between ports of entry at the southern border.
Members of Texas National Guard sit inside the fence at Shelby Park on February 3, 2024 in Eagle Pass, Texas.
It has been the epicenter of state and federal government showdown as Abbott continues to restrict Border Patrol’s access to the area, preventing them from apprehending migrants crossing in one of the region’s major hotspots.
The Biden administration has sued the state of Texas over a law that would give new authority to local police to crack down on those suspected of entering the country illegally.
Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court intervened in the state-federal dispute and issued an order allowing federal authorities to cut down the razor wire installed by Texas in areas where it was otherwise difficult to help migrants in distress.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has been critical of the Texas governor, calling Abbott’s unilateral actions on the border “unconscionable.”
Greg Abbott, governor of Texas, during a news conference at Shelby Park along the Rio Grande River i…Show more
Sergio Flores/Bloomberg via Getty Images
“It is unconscionable for a public official, to deliberately refuse to communicate, coordinate, collaborate with other public officials in the service of our nation’s interests, and to refuse to do so with the hope of creating disorder for others,” Mayorkas said in a recent interview with the Associated Press.
At the Friday press conference, Texas Maj. Gen. Suelzer said that in the coming weeks the Texas National Guard will be expanding operations and installing new barriers north and south of Eagle Pass, an indication that the state continues to build barriers despite the Supreme Court ruling last month that Border Patrol agents are allowed to remove or destroy razor wire fencing to apprehend migrants attempting to enter the United States. Suelzer did not specify if the expansion of those efforts means they will also restrict access to federal agents in those areas.
Without providing any evidence, Abbott claimed his efforts at Shelby Park and in other parts of the border are responsible for the number of crossings in the area dropping in recent weeks and increasing in Arizona and other parts of the border. The state’s operations at Shelby Park cover roughly 1% of the entire southern border. But the governor did acknowledge that the number of migrant encounters in the region might once again climb in the coming months.
“As we all know, come springtime, there’s going to be additional caravans that are making their way through the southern and central part of Mexico deciding where they are going to be going,” Abbott said. “We want to make sure that when they come to the crossroad about, ‘Are they going to go to Texas? Are they going to go elsewhere?’ They will know the wrong place to go is the state of Texas.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) floats building a wall between Texas and Oklahoma because of the "radical woke left agenda … crisscrossing the United States." pic.twitter.com/i9vbjiZ55B
First thought from the headline: The American Nazi Party is already testing the waters with interstate travel restrictions for women and LGBT+ people, going so far as to legislate the presumption of guilt on the part of those making travel arrangements… The Federalist Society Inquisition has so far been somewhere between ignoring it and nodding their approval. So it only makes sense they’d try and enforce a ban on interstate travel with physical barriers and goon squads.
However, per the text of the article: Putting all his private army thugs in one place right next to where he wants to start a fight with the federal government… I can only say fucking go for it! The US air force will no doubt program the coordinates into their missiles in order to knock it all off the moment shots are fired.
I am an older gay guy in a long-term wonderful relationship. My spouse and I are in our 36th year together. I love politics and news. I enjoy civil discussions and have no taboo subjects. My pronouns are he / him / his and my email is Scottiestoybox@gmail.com
View all posts by Scotties Playtime
13 thoughts on “Texas governor building 2,300-bed military base at seized border park”
Has anyone explained to these guys that Mexico got the message in 1836?
And that, no in this world Texas hasn’t a hope in hell of surviving as an independent nation. China would commercially gobble it up and sell bits of real estate to the highest bidders.
Hello Roger. Everything you say is true. But that is not what this is really about. Seriously. This is about posturing and political positioning, for the hope of further political advancement. The republicans have only one issue to claim they should be in charge on. Yet they just refused to solve the issue legally with laws. Their only hope, and governor Abbots for a future right wing post, is that the maga base is convinced that what Texas is doing is standing up to a weak democratic president to show republican superior strength. This is entirely about playing to right wing media, to try to show the republican base that that republicans are strong while Biden is a weak old man. Yet they totally ignore how totally illegal all of this is, how unchristian it is, how against everything the US Constitution and even the last tRump administration pushed. It all about trying to position the republicans as strong saviors of the country and a weak Biden that won’t challenge them even though they are clearly wrong. Plus to their base the extra goodie is they are racist bigots. Hugs. Scottie
You are of course quite right Scottie, this is what they intend.
And yet they do not appreciate the Unintended Consequences which can unfold from their bigoted actions.
Whereas it is unlikely Texas would split from the US and there are other states which would be sympathetic at this stage, they seem to have forgotten the adage on which the US was built ‘In Union There Is Strength’.
They are intent on a divisive strategy, which puts them at odds with large segments of the population and other states / regions/ cities within the USA.
This is turn weakens the USA as a cohesive unit, which in turn allows equally large states such as Russia and China to take advantage. Initially in their own localities, which Russia has been doing aggressively for two decades now, and China circles Taiwan.
These two nations when seeking assistance from North Korea and Iran (along with networks of client states or semi-states) are then able to gather resources to fuel a co-ordinated disruption of the US itself weaken its ability to play a part in world politics.
Once a state is placed in this situation it is then easier for outsiders to literally ‘own’ parts either through commercial means or by having sections of politics in their pockets.
It may sound far fetched right now, but it is the means by which small-sized nations such as Britain and France were able to build vast overseas empires. Some folk make the mistake that it was European technology and drive against weak and primitive folk. Not so, there were compact sophisticated states such as China and the Indian princedoms which fell.
These fools within the republican party do not have the faintest idea of the forces at play within this world.
The tragedy is they could drag the innocent down with them.
Hi Roger. What I really don’t get is why the maga base thinks being a bully strongman who gets to insult and demean others with impunity is a good thing to be. Why do they think such a person is better than a more considerate nice quiet guy, who speaks softly and in complete sentences? I wonder if these people actually think country to country diplomacy is decided by whose leader can beat up the other one. If that was the case, Angela Merkel should have ruled the world, my money is on her to win any fight. But don’t they understand presidents don’t beat their staff daily, that they are the guys who think and decide, and others do the actually work. They have militaries for looking tough. I just don’t understand the right wing mind set, and what they see in some of the clearly unfit for holding elected office people they vote for. Hugs. Scottie
Hi Scottie.
I have never rated Trump more than that archetype loud mouth at the end of the bar or bombastic bore at the high-end Country Club.
When he appeared on the scene he was the manifestation of all those base resentments and prejudices of the grass roots. It bears repeating he just plays to them, and basically dances to their bidding. MAGA pulls his strings, maybe both parties in their unholy marriage do not realise it, but for an outsider at this distance it is so. He has nothing of the Leader in him (some call him a Hitler- he has nothing those fearfully driven dynamics Hitler had, Trump is no more than a huckster).
MAGA are essentially the mindset which rises in the USA from time to time. They come from the small towns, with small town resentments and suspicions. They are fearful of their conservative ways being taken away from them and are thus hostile. Their forebears stalked the back roads and main streets of the small town in years gone by. (Ask any African American about the histories their grandparents could tell).
Like any other deeply entrenched group the mentality is ‘With Us or Against Us’ coupled with ‘You Don’t Belong. Get Out of Town’.
It is all tribal Scottie. For folk looking just to get along with each other it is a totally alien mindset.
Small wonder you have trouble grasping it.
It is Humanity with its unpleasant mask on.
Take care and best wishes to You and Ron
Thank you, Roger. I think you are correct, now that I think how you label tRump. He is not so much the threat as those that use him when he is in power. He is the child that if they keep him happy with the bobbles and shinny objects they can do anything they want behind his back. How many old stories have been written like this. The scariest thing is the people playing him want to totally take over the US, and democracy and install a theocracy. I don’t know if you have heard about “Project 2025”? https://www.project2025.org/ It is one of the most terrifying things I have read / heard of. These people mean this shit. And they won’t stop if tRump loses, they will wait until they get a leader they can use to do it. The end of the US and all we thought we were. Hugs. Scottie
They are either lying or displaying great ignorance.
This obsession, delusion, outright lie they have about ‘The Radical Left’.
I have worked with ‘The Radical Left’ I have believed in a version of ‘The Radical Left’, I have argued with members of ‘The Radical Left’ . I have read agendas of European Radical Left parties.
Believe you me Scottie whatever ‘Radical Left’ that exists in the US is a fringe barely visible.
In the words of the old Ramones’ classics:
‘And you don’t come close’
This reminds me of the Nazis screaming that the Jews, Romanies, Slavs and Gays were the threat the Germany (and the Communists and Socialists, although they did tend to be an afterthought in the rants).
They lie, they are also fools. Dangerous fools, like angry drunks with guns or frat boys having a barbeque in a parched forest during the high summer.
Thank you Roger. I hope if we all, including you, keep beating the drums we might just hold them off, until we can get a large enough majority to defeat them totally forever. It is my wish. Hugs. Scottie
I wonder what TX is afraid of OK over? They’re no more liberal than TX is, except maybe on the marijuana thing. I don’t know if it’s legal in TX or not.
I think TX has fairly well let the world know who’s welcome and who’s not welcome to TX. Speaking for myself, TX can have TX.
Hi Ali. It is the border wall thing. I worked so dang well for them in the past with the base, with the people. They need to keep ramping up the fear of the other. Since the hoards at the southern border are losing impact, they need to beat the drum harder … so maybe that other state. Plus right now the republican right in Texas is so puffed up about not being told by anyone else how to do anything that the idea of leaving the union is popular with them. Plus don’t the republicans want to ban interstate travel for pregnant people? Does OK allow abortion or transgender treatments that people in Texas could go to the state for? Hugs. Scottie
Nope. Women are just as SOL in OK as they are in TX. The only thing people can do that I don’t think TX allows is use marijuana.
I’m not advocating drug abuse, but over the years since Reagan, it has occurred to me that it would be beneficial to Republicans to let us be stoned.
Hi Ali. I feel that what recreational poison an adult willing choose to use / put in themselves is their right / own business as long as they are not harming others. And yes I agree that the right wing maga republicans need some serious chill. While they all seem to abuse alcohol far too many of them get belligerent and lose all sense of decorum when they are drinking it seems, if the reports of drunken congress people screaming at staff and interns is true. Hugs. Scottie
Scottie's Playtime 
Has anyone explained to these guys that Mexico got the message in 1836?
And that, no in this world Texas hasn’t a hope in hell of surviving as an independent nation. China would commercially gobble it up and sell bits of real estate to the highest bidders.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Hello Roger. Everything you say is true. But that is not what this is really about. Seriously. This is about posturing and political positioning, for the hope of further political advancement. The republicans have only one issue to claim they should be in charge on. Yet they just refused to solve the issue legally with laws. Their only hope, and governor Abbots for a future right wing post, is that the maga base is convinced that what Texas is doing is standing up to a weak democratic president to show republican superior strength. This is entirely about playing to right wing media, to try to show the republican base that that republicans are strong while Biden is a weak old man. Yet they totally ignore how totally illegal all of this is, how unchristian it is, how against everything the US Constitution and even the last tRump administration pushed. It all about trying to position the republicans as strong saviors of the country and a weak Biden that won’t challenge them even though they are clearly wrong. Plus to their base the extra goodie is they are racist bigots. Hugs. Scottie
LikeLiked by 2 people
You are of course quite right Scottie, this is what they intend.
And yet they do not appreciate the Unintended Consequences which can unfold from their bigoted actions.
Whereas it is unlikely Texas would split from the US and there are other states which would be sympathetic at this stage, they seem to have forgotten the adage on which the US was built ‘In Union There Is Strength’.
They are intent on a divisive strategy, which puts them at odds with large segments of the population and other states / regions/ cities within the USA.
This is turn weakens the USA as a cohesive unit, which in turn allows equally large states such as Russia and China to take advantage. Initially in their own localities, which Russia has been doing aggressively for two decades now, and China circles Taiwan.
These two nations when seeking assistance from North Korea and Iran (along with networks of client states or semi-states) are then able to gather resources to fuel a co-ordinated disruption of the US itself weaken its ability to play a part in world politics.
Once a state is placed in this situation it is then easier for outsiders to literally ‘own’ parts either through commercial means or by having sections of politics in their pockets.
It may sound far fetched right now, but it is the means by which small-sized nations such as Britain and France were able to build vast overseas empires. Some folk make the mistake that it was European technology and drive against weak and primitive folk. Not so, there were compact sophisticated states such as China and the Indian princedoms which fell.
These fools within the republican party do not have the faintest idea of the forces at play within this world.
The tragedy is they could drag the innocent down with them.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Roger. What I really don’t get is why the maga base thinks being a bully strongman who gets to insult and demean others with impunity is a good thing to be. Why do they think such a person is better than a more considerate nice quiet guy, who speaks softly and in complete sentences? I wonder if these people actually think country to country diplomacy is decided by whose leader can beat up the other one. If that was the case, Angela Merkel should have ruled the world, my money is on her to win any fight. But don’t they understand presidents don’t beat their staff daily, that they are the guys who think and decide, and others do the actually work. They have militaries for looking tough. I just don’t understand the right wing mind set, and what they see in some of the clearly unfit for holding elected office people they vote for. Hugs. Scottie
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Scottie.
I have never rated Trump more than that archetype loud mouth at the end of the bar or bombastic bore at the high-end Country Club.
When he appeared on the scene he was the manifestation of all those base resentments and prejudices of the grass roots. It bears repeating he just plays to them, and basically dances to their bidding. MAGA pulls his strings, maybe both parties in their unholy marriage do not realise it, but for an outsider at this distance it is so. He has nothing of the Leader in him (some call him a Hitler- he has nothing those fearfully driven dynamics Hitler had, Trump is no more than a huckster).
MAGA are essentially the mindset which rises in the USA from time to time. They come from the small towns, with small town resentments and suspicions. They are fearful of their conservative ways being taken away from them and are thus hostile. Their forebears stalked the back roads and main streets of the small town in years gone by. (Ask any African American about the histories their grandparents could tell).
Like any other deeply entrenched group the mentality is ‘With Us or Against Us’ coupled with ‘You Don’t Belong. Get Out of Town’.
It is all tribal Scottie. For folk looking just to get along with each other it is a totally alien mindset.
Small wonder you have trouble grasping it.
It is Humanity with its unpleasant mask on.
Take care and best wishes to You and Ron
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Roger. I think you are correct, now that I think how you label tRump. He is not so much the threat as those that use him when he is in power. He is the child that if they keep him happy with the bobbles and shinny objects they can do anything they want behind his back. How many old stories have been written like this. The scariest thing is the people playing him want to totally take over the US, and democracy and install a theocracy. I don’t know if you have heard about “Project 2025”? https://www.project2025.org/ It is one of the most terrifying things I have read / heard of. These people mean this shit. And they won’t stop if tRump loses, they will wait until they get a leader they can use to do it. The end of the US and all we thought we were. Hugs. Scottie
LikeLiked by 1 person
They are either lying or displaying great ignorance.
This obsession, delusion, outright lie they have about ‘The Radical Left’.
I have worked with ‘The Radical Left’ I have believed in a version of ‘The Radical Left’, I have argued with members of ‘The Radical Left’ . I have read agendas of European Radical Left parties.
Believe you me Scottie whatever ‘Radical Left’ that exists in the US is a fringe barely visible.
In the words of the old Ramones’ classics:
‘And you don’t come close’
This reminds me of the Nazis screaming that the Jews, Romanies, Slavs and Gays were the threat the Germany (and the Communists and Socialists, although they did tend to be an afterthought in the rants).
They lie, they are also fools. Dangerous fools, like angry drunks with guns or frat boys having a barbeque in a parched forest during the high summer.
Take care you guys and vote in 2024.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you Roger. I hope if we all, including you, keep beating the drums we might just hold them off, until we can get a large enough majority to defeat them totally forever. It is my wish. Hugs. Scottie
LikeLiked by 1 person
This is what I am hoping for you folk.
Reduce them back to where they came from small groups of malcontents no one cares to listen to.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I wonder what TX is afraid of OK over? They’re no more liberal than TX is, except maybe on the marijuana thing. I don’t know if it’s legal in TX or not.
I think TX has fairly well let the world know who’s welcome and who’s not welcome to TX. Speaking for myself, TX can have TX.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Ali. It is the border wall thing. I worked so dang well for them in the past with the base, with the people. They need to keep ramping up the fear of the other. Since the hoards at the southern border are losing impact, they need to beat the drum harder … so maybe that other state. Plus right now the republican right in Texas is so puffed up about not being told by anyone else how to do anything that the idea of leaving the union is popular with them. Plus don’t the republicans want to ban interstate travel for pregnant people? Does OK allow abortion or transgender treatments that people in Texas could go to the state for? Hugs. Scottie
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nope. Women are just as SOL in OK as they are in TX. The only thing people can do that I don’t think TX allows is use marijuana.
I’m not advocating drug abuse, but over the years since Reagan, it has occurred to me that it would be beneficial to Republicans to let us be stoned.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Ali. I feel that what recreational poison an adult willing choose to use / put in themselves is their right / own business as long as they are not harming others. And yes I agree that the right wing maga republicans need some serious chill. While they all seem to abuse alcohol far too many of them get belligerent and lose all sense of decorum when they are drinking it seems, if the reports of drunken congress people screaming at staff and interns is true. Hugs. Scottie
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