ANALYSIS – The Biden border crisis just gets worse every day, with no help at all from the White House.
And now that a federal court has invalidated Trump’s Title 42 COVID regulation forcing would-be asylum seekers to remain in Mexico, expect a massive new illegal migrant surge. (RELATED: Judge Strikes Down Trump-Era Title 42 Border Policy)
Much of that surge and chaos is seen along the border with Texas which takes the brunt of the migrant onslaught.
In response, Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced that he is invoking the U.S. Constitution’s invasion clause and taking “unprecedented measures” to repel a “border invasion.”
Abbott also sent out a press release and a letter to county officials along the border.
Abbott’s declaration comes one week after he won a third four-year term as governor. Former Trump administration officials had been urging the governors of Arizona and Texas to declare an “invasion” to justify more aggressive measures to stem the illegal migrant tide.
Infuriating his partisan critics and open border advocates, the governor can expect severe legal pushback.
The question is – can he win?
As the American Bar Association Journal notes:
The invasion clause is at Article 1, Section 10 of the Constitution.
It provides: “No state shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any duty of tonnage, keep troops or ships of war in time of peace, enter into any agreement or compact with another state or with a foreign power or engage in war, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent danger as will not admit of delay.”
Abbott said he will deploy the National Guard to “repel and turn back” immigrants trying to enter the country illegally. He will also deploy the Texas Department of Public Safety to arrest and return to the border immigrants who came into the country illegally.
Abbott also plans to build a border wall in multiple counties, deploy gun boats, enter into a compact with other states to secure the border, and “enter into agreements with foreign powers to enhance border security.”
Abbott first authorized the National Guard and Texas police to act in July, directing them to return immigrants to ports of entry. He also referenced the invasion clause at the time.
However, Abbott has yet to issue a formal invasion declaration or official order.
His office has not published such a declaration through an official news release or on the governor’s website, which means he has not yet gone much beyond his actions and declarations in July.
National security expert and Navy JAG Jonathan Hullihan told The Center Square that if Abbott had invoked his constitutional authority on Tuesday, “he would have done so in an official document, not from a personal Twitter account.”
Hence “No document, no order.”
And critics question its legality. The ABA notes:
Nunn said Abbott’s actions were actually “a thinly veiled effort to take the reins on U.S. immigration policy.” But that would also be unconstitutional under U.S. Supreme Court precedent holding that immigration policy is “unquestionably” and “exclusively” a federal power, Nunn said.
“For all these reasons, the Biden administration would likely succeed in court if it sued to stop Abbott from carrying out his plans,” Nunn concluded.
But others see this as a well-played political move putting Team Biden in a position it can’t win. (RELATED: Report: Abbott Looks to Target This Sanctuary City Next)
“We’re literally talking about state officials doing the same exact thing that federal officials do with Title 42,” said Ken Cuccinelli, a senior fellow at the conservative nonprofit organization Center for Renewing America.
And as the Washington Examiner reports:
“He’s [Abbott] run Operation Lone Star and kept your National Guard up and running for a show. He knows it doesn’t do anything,” said Cuccinelli, adding that the state could win a battle in federal court.
“If you’re the federal government and you sue Texas over it … they have to prove there is not an invasion, and they have the burden of proof because they’re the plaintiff in the case. Good luck proving that today with the state of the border. I don’t think it could be done.”
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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Had the constitutional framers (like their predecessors in the early 1600s) established government and society upon the Bible’s immutable/unchanging moral law (including its border and immigration statutes), beginning with the First Commandment and its respective statutes and civil judgment, border invasion would be all but unheard of.
The same with every other national travesty known today.
The constitutional framers’ sins were of both commission and omission. The framers’ sins of commission are evidenced in that there’s hardly an Article or Amendment that’s not antithetical, if not seditious, to Yahweh’s sovereignty and morality
Their sins of commission aside, the framers’ sins of omission—that is, their failure to establish government and society based upon Yahweh’s commandments, statutes, and judgments—alone sent America to the precipice of moral depravity and destruction she presently teeters on.
Ask the millions of infants slaughtered in their mothers’ wombs if the constitutional framers’ failure to establish government on Exodus 21:22-23 and Deuteronomy 27:25 didn’t lead to their annihilation?
There’s not one national problem in America today—government-financed in utero infanticide, sodomite “marriages,” biblically unqualified, civil “leaders,” international entanglements, Synagogues, Mosques, and Temples devoted to false gods dotting America’s landscape, America’s crumbling economy, runaway debt, and taxes on nearly everything, etc.—that cannot be traced back to the framers’ sins of omission.
“For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” (Jeremiah 2:13)
For evidence that the Constitution is biblically seditious, see free online book “Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective,” in which every Article and Amendment is *examined* by the Bible, at Bible versus Constitution dot org. Click on the top entry on our Online Book page.
Find out how much you really know about the Constitution as compared to the Bible. Take our 10-question Constitution Survey in the sidebar and receive a free copy of the 85-page “Primer” of “BL vs. USC.”
This gentleman is using our Constitution correctly and in good faith. Expect progressive blowhards to only cite part of Article 1 Section 10 and omit the allowed variance.
You think the backlash from this is bad now, wait till Texas says “We are leaving the Union”. Then the %$#@ will hit the fan.
1 BP official says all Abbott does is photo ops vs hard core goverinng & leadership on issue alone
The actions or antics of Governor Abbott are no doubt objectionable/questionable to some. That said, what of the actions, inaction/antics of the Biden administration in so dismally failing to secure the borders of the country it governs. Securing the borders of the nation is one of the functions of government, isn’t it?
His office has not published such a declaration through an official news release or on the governor’s website, which means he has not yet gone much beyond his actions and declarations in July.
This is a false statement. The fact they have not FORMALLY publicized action DOES NOT mean they haven’t taken action. If they had never issued a press release about the buses of illegals sent to NYC, Washington DC, etc, that wouldn’t mean the buses didn’t transport the illegals.