Texas Rural Reporter 10.6.2025
By Suzanne Bellsnyder | The Texas Rural Reporter
Quietly over the weekend, Governor Greg Abbott authorized the deployment of 400 Texas National Guard members to Illinois and Oregon “to protect federal officials and ensure safety at federal facilities.” So far, there’s no clear explanation of what threat exists, what the troops will be doing, or how this mission benefits Texans.
Can you imagine another state’s troops invading Texas?
The move is opposed by both Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and Oregon Governor Tina Kotek, who said their states did not consent to the presence of Texas troops. Kotek called the deployment “a dangerous and un-American misuse of states’ National Guard members and hard-earned taxpayer dollars.” Legal experts are questioning whether it’s even lawful for one state’s Guard to be deployed across state lines without invitation — especially for what appears to be a political mission.
The Texas National Guard is a citizen force made up of ordinary Texans — farmers, teachers, linemen, welders, nurses, small-business owners, and students. They train on weekends, raise families, and step up when disaster strikes. During the Panhandle wildfires, Guard units used drones and aircraft to map fire lines and help firefighters. When Central Texas flooded this year, Guardsmen rescued hundreds of people, delivered supplies, and supported local responders. The Guard’s role has always been clear — to protect and serve Texans in times of crisis.
You may support President Trump and you may be concerned about the situation in Oregon and Illinois, but deploying our citizen troops this way should alarm every Texan.
It’s also deeply un-Texan. Our history is built on the idea that government should defend its people — not impose its will on others. Texans have always fought for the right to govern ourselves, not to invade or control someone else’s backyard. We are a state that values independence because we knew what it meant to lose it.
Watching our troops cross another state’s border at the bidding of Washington looks less like the Texas of Sam Houston and more like the politics of D.C. Texans have never needed marching orders from anyone.
Texans being used as a political pawn should trouble anyone who still believes in state sovereignty and self-governance. Every time Abbott lets Washington use us for political theater, we give up a little more of what makes Texas, Texas. We weren’t built to be a prop in someone else’s campaign — we were built to stand on our own two feet.
This move doesn’t make Texans safer. It blurs constitutional lines, risks turning a citizens’ defense force into a political one, and puts us all in danger. It looks less like leadership and more like Governor Abbott chasing a political win instead of doing what’s best for the people back home.
As I write this up this on Monday morning, the issue is playing out in court. Late Sunday night, U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut, a Trump appointee, issued an emergency order blocking the deployment and relocation of National Guard members to Oregon. Oregon and California have sued the administration, arguing the president overstepped his authority. Immergut said there was “no showing that military help is necessary” and called the move a potential abuse of power and issued an order meant to halt the deployments.
Abbott has doubled down, firing back on X: “You can either fully enforce protection for federal employees or get out of the way and let Texas Guard do it.”
That response made one thing clear: Abbott isn’t defending Texas independence — he’s lending out our people and our resources.
And this isn’t an isolated decision — it’s part of a pattern. Governor Abbott has spent years trading what’s best for Texans for favor with Trump and loud national headlines.
He took $6 million in out-of-state donations to target rural Republican legislators who opposed his private-school voucher plan — a plan written to please Washington think tanks, not Texas families. He forced through a redistricting bill while flood-relief and infrastructure bills sat on the sidelines. He spent hundreds of millions building a border wall that still isn’t finished — a project long on photo ops and short on results.
Now, in his latest stunt, he’s sending Texas troops into states that neither want nor need them — for a mission no one can explain — all to keep his name in the national news cycle.
Some days, you have to wonder if the first thing Abbott does each morning is look at the whiteboard in his office and ask, “How do we get on Fox News today?”
When is enough, enough? Because this sure isn’t Texas Independence.
About the Author
Suzanne Bellsnyder is editor and publisher of the Hansford County Reporter-Statesman and Sherman County Gazette. A former Capitol staffer with decades of experience in Texas politics and policy, she now focuses on how state decisions shape rural life through her newspapers and the Texas Rural Reporter. You can subscribe to the newsletter at www.TexasRuralReporter.Substack.com.
