Texas House GOP unites behind U.S. House border invasion resolution
May 7, 2026
BY MATEO ROSILES
USA TODAY NETWORK
It's hard to find consensus — even within one's own party — on certain political issues; however, every
Texas GOP U.S. representative has found an issue and a resolution to rally behind.
U.S. Rep. Jodey Arrington's office announced that he has secured the backing of the entire Texas Republican Delegation in the U.S. House for a resolution on border security he has authored and has spent years trying to pass.
"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.
A U.S. Army Stryker armored vehicle stands near the U.S.-Mexico border as part of the Trump administration's crackdown on immigration, as seen
from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, March10, 2026. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez |
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 President Joe Biden's 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 again in 2023 — but neither went anywhere.
Why did U.S. Arrington write H.R. 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 lays out, 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 under the Biden administration, it had 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's set to leave office in January 2027, this is the final push he can make on the resolution.
Who is backing H.Res. 50?
The U.S.-Mexico border wall stretches along a dirt road near 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."
