Bud Kennedy: Texas county declares immigration ‘disaster,’ foreign ‘invasion’

You’d think Republicans would do their best right now to help Gov. Greg Abbott. But not in Parker County, where County Judge Pat Deen and commissioners are undermining Abbott. Ten weeks before voting begins in an ever-narrowing Texas election, county leaders sided with a local secessionist faction and declared a countywide disaster, urging Abbott to claim fantasy military powers and use troops to violently expel those “invading the sovereignty of Texas.” Parker County is under foreign “invasion,” commissioners agreed unanimously July 25. They warned of a “security threat and humanitarian disaster.” Look, I know it’s been a few weeks since I made a run to the H-E-B. Sure, it was crowded. But I had no idea Hudson Oaks was facing international peril.

Maybe they were talking about all the cars from Illinois and California. If there’s an invasion in Parker County, it is not coming from a border 350 miles south. In a phone interview, Deen said commissioners’ disaster declaration “supports the governor’s efforts” against cartels and traffickers, and isn’t political. But one of the speakers the very day commissioners issued the declaration was a Peaster resident who said Abbott calls the border secure and “it is not. .... Shut it all down! He’s not going to do it during an election year. We have to put pressure!” Instead of claiming some imaginary powers, Abbott is spending public money to send illegal border crossers voluntarily by bus to New York, D.C. and maybe other states. I’m not sure that helps either. But it shares the burden and better makes Abbott’s political point. In a close election, the rule for Republicans right now is: Don’t do anything stupid.