Arrington wins full Texas GOP backing for border invasion resolution
May 7, 2026
BY MATEO ROSILES
USA TODAY NETWORK
With the clock winding down on U.S. Rep. Jodey Arrington's term, he still has
several items on his checklist he wants to accomplish before leaving office — and one just gained the full support of every Texas Republican in the U.S. House.
The Lubbock Republican's office announced that a resolution on border security — one he has been trying to push through Congress for years — has just received the backing of the full Texas Republican Delegation in the U.S. House.
"Texans have seen the consequences of federal failure, and we cannot afford another border crisis. With the full support of the Texas delegation, I’m calling on Congress to act now to pass this resolution and ensure that no future Democrat administration can take us back to open-border lawlessness," Arrington, R-19, said in a statement.
Arrington's
House Resolution 50 was written to affirm states’ constitutional authority to defend themselves when the federal government fails to secure the border.
Here's what you need to know about the resolution, why it was written and who is backing it.
U.S. Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, speaks at a news conference about the wins and impact of the One Big Beautiful Bill on West Texans and Rural
Americans on July 10, 2025 in Lubbock, Texas. Arrington helped author the bill signed by President Trump on July 4. Mateo Rosiles/Avalanche-Journal |
What is House Resolution 50?
Arrington's resolution, introduced in January 2025, formally declares that southern border states — Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California — faced an invasion during the Biden Administration.
As a resolution, it is not a law nor does it require a presidential signature; rather, it expresses the U.S. House's opinion on the matter. The resolution alleges that President Joe Biden did not take the necessary actions to protect Americans from threats at the border during his time in office.
Here are the four points laid out in the resolution:
- States have the sovereign right to exclude a person without a legal right to be present.
- Declares that states along the U.S.-Mexico border were "invaded" or were in "imminent danger" from "paramilitary, narco-terrorist cartels, terrorists and criminal actors" from 2021 to 2024, and the states had the constitutional right to defend themselves
- Declares that the federal government failed to protect the border against the invasion from 2021 to 2024.
- Declares that the Biden administration failed to "faithfully execute the laws" of the U.S. and to defend and protect states on the southern border against invasion or imminent danger.
Arrington first introduced the resolution in 2021 and then again in 2023 — but neither of them went anywhere.
Why did U.S. Arrington write H.Res. 50?
House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (TX-19) speaks with press before going to the House Chambers to vote on February 25, 2025 in
Washington, DC. Congress members are voting on three bills relating to small businesses and the 2025 fiscal year budget. Kayla Bartkowski, Getty Images |
As Arrington describes, the resolution is grounded in the U.S. Constitution’s Guarantee Clause — Article IV, Section 4 — and Article I, Section 10, which addresses a state’s sovereign authority to act in self-defense when facing invasion or imminent danger.
The resolution alleges that the Biden administration created a failed border policy which allowed record levels of illegal border crossings, cartel activity and drug and human trafficking to take place, putting a strain on border states and communities.
In a 2024 opinion column in the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, part of the USA TODAY Network, Arrington stated that during the Biden Administration, Texas and other states were forced to act to protect their citizens, while the federal government failed to fulfill its constitutional duty to provide for the common defense.
With Arrington set to leave office in January 2027, this is the final push he can make on the resolution.
Who is backing H.R. 50?
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The U.S.-Mexico border wall stretches along a dirt road new Sunland Park, New Mexico, on March 24, 2026. Gaby Velasquez/El Paso Times, Puente News Collaborative |
His resolution has gained the backing of lawmakers, legal scholars, law enforcement and leaders across Texas and the nation.
Most recently, in early April, the Texas Public Policy Foundation penned a letter to Congress in support of Arrington's resolution, with over 100 Texas state lawmakers, Texas Republican leadership and others signing on.
In addition to having every Texas Republican in the U.S. House sign on as a cosponsor of the resolution, Arrington also got the backing of constitutional scholar and former deputy assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel, John Yoo.
"The Constitution, as interpreted by the Supreme Court, forbids states from interfering with the federal government’s monopoly over our territorial sovereignty," said Yoo in a statement. "But the House of Representatives could make its own findings of fact that failures at the border rose to the level of an ‘imminent danger’ that would justify a state’s exercise of self-defense. Such a set of findings might bolster Texas’s case in the courts as well as its political case to the public. Rep. Jodey Arrington, R.-Texas, has introduced H.Res 50, for example, to do exactly that. Without such congressional support, Texas is likely to fail."
