A retired Brigadier General of the Texas Army National Guard delivered a dire warning to a group of activists gathered at the Grayson County Courthouse on Monday.
Mike Wallace, formerly of the 36th Infantry Division, spoke to members of the Texoma Patriots about his views on illegal immigration. Texoma Patriots is a social movement organization that aims to hold governmental leaders accountable.
“This is the most danger our country has been in since the Civil War, if not the founding of this country,” Wallace said during the meeting.
He called the federal government’s failure to secure the border and its practice of allowing unlawful immigrants to remain in the country as long as possible “the most evil and treasonous things done to our country.”
To illustrate the magnitude of the unlawful immigrant crisis, he compared the number of people crossing the border to military troops.
“[A group of people equivalent to] an Army Division [15,000 soldiers] crosses our border every three days,” he said. “An Army corps [two to five divisions approximating 45,000 soldiers] crosses every week.”
Using government figures on crossings, Wallace made another shocking claim.
“A Field Army [equivalent to 90,000 soldiers], something not seen since World War II, crosses every two weeks,” he concluded.
Referencing the Normandy Invasion, which approximated 160,000 men, the former general noted that there were almost 400,000 “encounters” between border patrol and illegal immigrants in 2023. “But encounters do not include gotaways,” Wallace explained.
He reminded listeners that “encounters” merely refer to those who crossed the border and were detained by Border Patrol. He said these figures do not include those who escaped law enforcement or used the CBP One app to enter the country.
Pivoting away from the quantitative data, he turned to the qualitative.
The general noted that three organizations take advantage of the porousness of the Southern Border. Wallace said that these organizations were the drug cartels, the Chinese Communist Party, and various Islamic terrorist organizations.
He described the cartels as interested in trafficking drugs, weapons, and humans, as well as serving as a facilitator of the latter two organizations.
Wallace showed a video of a checkpoint in California, where a majority of the illegal immigrants appeared to be Chinese. Although it is unclear what the intentions of any specific Chinese national in this video were, he noted that the border has allowed Chinese saboteurs to enter the United States.
He added, “All of [the terror groups] — Hezbollah, Hamas — have deep ties to the cartel.”
Many of the videos and photographs he presented at the meeting reflected broader reporting, showing most border crossers are not families but combat-age [18-35] males.
Wallace commended state border security operations such as Operation Lonestar and efforts by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to bus illegal immigrants from their respective states to places like New York City and Martha’s Vineyard.
With the presidential transition in mind and a perception that President-elect Trump may pursue a more aggressive deportation policy than his predecessors, Wallace said to be prepared for a media onslaught against deportation actions.
“You are going to hear a barrage from the media when deportations start,” Wallace claimed.
Wallace recalled that during Trump’s first administration, the 45th President was repeatedly attacked by the corporate press for allegedly separating illegal immigrant families that were being held in detention.
“[That] was bogus; they were separated by feet,” the retired general said, adding, “They were separated so that agents could ask the children, ‘What is your dog’s name?’ ‘What color is the roof of your house?’ ‘What town are you from?'”
Agents would separate and ask the same questions to people claiming to be family units to determine whether there was human trafficking at hand, he explained. Wallace noted that sometimes they also conducted DNA testing to make similar determinations.
“It’s going to be awful, but we are a sovereign nation. A nation without borders is not a nation at all,” Wallace said toward the end of his remarks.
Given Wallace’s framing of the border crossings as an invasion, The Dallas Express asked the general if he believed Texas had the capacity and resources to execute its Article 1, Section 10 “state war powers” against what many state legislators have called an invasion at the Southern Border.
“I think Texas can do it,” Wallace answered.
He then hinted that it may not be necessary if the federal government takes action first and enforces immigration policy effectively. Wallace gave the caveat that whatever the state does, it should include a “whole of government approach” that helps the federal government.
The Texoma Patriots’ email publicizing the event summarized some of Wallace’s credentials and life experiences: “The General has a distinguished military record. After graduating from the West Point class of 1994, he was commissioned and served in the infantry branch. He is both Ranger and Parachutist-qualified and has received the Air Assault Badge. He had multiple deployments to both Iraq and Afghanistan. In his civilian career, he is the owner and National Sales Director for 401 Plans,” the mailer said.