Did the Texas National Guard send tanks to its southern border in January 2024? No, that's not true: A spokesperson for the Texas National Guard told Lead Stories they are not sending tanks to the border. Multiple posts made versions of the claim but there is no evidence to substantiate any of those posts.
The claim appeared in a post and video (archived here) on X, formerly known as Twitter, on January 27, 2024. It began with this caption:
The Texas National Guard has sent 10 military tanks to stop an invasion of illegal immigrants
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Tue Jan 30 20:57:26 2024 UTC)
The 35-second video shows military vehicles appearing to emerge from some woods and enter a highway. The location is not specified.
Multiple accounts made similar claims about Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott supposedly sending tanks to the border, as can be seen here (archived here), here (archived here), here (archived here) and here (archived here).
Marcus Byrne (archived here), director of strategic communication for the Texas Military Department, responded to an inquiry from Lead Stories, writing via email on January 30, 2024, regarding the post showing military vehicles pulling onto a highway:
First, the Texas National Guard is not sending tanks to the border. Second, the vehicles in the video aren't tanks, they are Bradley Fighting Vehicles.
Military.com (archived here) defines a Bradley Fighting Vehicle:
The M2 and M3 Bradley FIghting Vehicle is a lightly armored, fully tracked transport vehicle that provides cross-country mobility, mounted firepower and protection from artillery and small-arms fire. It is used in mechanized infantry and armored cavalry combat.
It possesses sufficient cross-country mobility to keep up with the M1 Abrams Main Battle Tank, medium and long-range firepower capable of defeating any vehicle on the battlefield, and is adequately armored to protect the crew from artillery and small arms threats. The Bradley is able to close with and destroy enemy forces in support of mounted and dismounted Infantry and Cavalry combat operations.
The claim about the Texas National Guard sending tanks to the border comes amid the immigration policy disagreement between the Texas governor and President Joe Biden. Abbott has installed razor wire and barriers at the border at the Rio Grande to try to stop migrants from crossing the border. He shut out U.S. Border Patrol agents in Eagle Pass, Texas, using the Texas National Guard instead, as the Washington Post reported (archived here). Abbott has called the process Operation Lone Star (archived here).
Lead Stories previously debunked the claim that Biden threatened to "wage war against Texas" here.
