All three Republicans running for North Carolina Governor are expressing support for Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s standoff with the federal government over immigration. At the heart of the dispute is razor wire that Texas put up along its Southern border and the Biden administration cut down.
Each of the North Carolina GOP gubernatorial hopefuls — Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, State Treasurer Dale Folwell and Businessman Bill Graham — posted statements on social media blaming President Joe Biden for the record-number of migrants at the border and encouraging Abbott’s actions as a state executive.
"The border is out of control and getting worse. Our country needs more governors like Gov. Abbott to step up into the gap and tell Biden enough is enough," Robinson said in statement on X.
Graham said in a post on X that the president had “turned North Carolina into a border state,” and that he stood with Abbot in the “fight against the Biden Administration to secure our border.”
Folwell said the federal government's “inability or unwillingness” to address immigration at the border puts national security in “peril.”
Just yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision that the Biden administration has the authority to remove the razor wire, but since, Abbot has begun putting it back up.
Democratic Governor Roy Cooper turned the focus to Congress in his remarks. House and Senate leaders have been negotiating a bipartisan immigration reform bill for weeks now, and the fate of that bill is uncertain, after former President Donald Trump said he didn't support the effort.
"If Republican Governors really wanted strong border security now they would release a joint statement supporting this legislation instead of one that bows to Trump and urges violating the constitution and the rule of law,” Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper said in a statement Friday.
North Carolina is the only state in the southeast where the Governor hasn’t backed Abbott. The Republican governor is claiming authority to act on immigration in order to prevent an "invasion" of Texas. Abbot says the federal government and the Biden administration have broke its "compact" with states to justify state-level action and supersede federal law.
The "compact theory" that Abbot endorses has been rejected several times by the Supreme Court in the past. The theory was used to justify succession by Southern state in the Civil War.
Earlier this month, before the standoff at the Texas border, both of ENC's congressional representatives voted in favor of a resolution condemning the president's immigration and border policies.
The non-binding resolution "denounces the Biden administration’s open-borders policies" and "condemns the national security and public safety crisis."
It passed the House Jan. 17 with all Republicans and 14 Democrats in favor, including Democratic Reps. Don Davis of Snow Hill and Wiley Nickel of Garner. Davis represents Northeastern North Carolina and has a history bucking his party on a number of big votes, including a budget bill that included provisions to eliminate diversity programs in the military and a ban on reimbursing service members who have to travel for an abortion. The first-term Democrat is facing a competitive election this year in the state's only swing district.
