The Constitution is clear on what the role of the federal government is when it comes to illegal immigration.
“The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence,” Article IV, Section 4 declares.
As we’ve seen, President Joe Biden’s administration and his Democratic enablers in Congress don’t want to meaningfully protect U.S. citizens from the invasion of illegal immigrants and criminal cartels at our southern border. They don’t want to protect voters in border states against the flood of fentanyl and lawlessness with anything except words.
So, Texas counties are taking it into their own hands — and now, 50 have declared that the border crisis rises to an “invasion.”
“The latest to do so are the judges and commissioners of Bandera, Schleicher and Uvalde counties,” the conservative news outlet The Center Square reported on Friday.
”Officials in Bandera and Schleicher counties signed nearly identical resolutions in November as Crockett County’s. Crockett County declared an invasion after its county judge’s family members were killed by an alleged human smuggler. Uvalde County officials signed their invasion resolution in July, when they also joined a coalition led by Atascosa County Judge Weston Cude.”
The counties have invoked both Article IV of the U.S. Constitution as well as Article IV, Section 7 of the Texas Constitution.
In that document, the Lone Star State governor is given the power to command its military forces to “suppress insurrection and to repel invasions.”
And leftists love suppressing “insurrection,” don’t they? Oh, only when it involves former President Donald Trump and/or those present at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
On the other hand, those whose very act of entering the United States constitutes a crime are fine.
Texas officials don’t agree.
“The invasion is unsustainable and threatens the lives of our citizens,” resolutions adopted by the counties declaring an “invasion” state, according to The Center Square.
To put this into context, this means that almost 20 percent of the 254 counties in Texas alone have declared the border crisis in their state an “invasion.” What’s more, the three new counties come on the heels of seven counties that declared an invasion in November, The Center Square reported.
“The Biden administration created the border crisis, county officials argue, with an estimated 10 million people illegally entering the country since 2021. An unprecedented 1.9 million illegal entered Texas in fiscal 2023 alone,” the outlet noted.
The counties that have declared an invasion are (deep breath):
Atascosa, Bandera, Burnet, Chambers, Clay, Collin, Crockett, Ector, Edwards, Ellis, Fannin, Franklin, Frio, Goliad, Hamilton, Hardin, Harrison, Hood, Hunt, Jack, Jasper, Johnson, Karnes, Kinney, La Salle, Lavaca, Leon, Liberty, Live Oak, Madison, McMullen, Medina, Montague, Navarro, Orange, Parker, Presidio, Schleicher, Shackelford, Somervell, Terrell, Throckmorton, Tyler, Uvalde, Van Zandt, Waller, Wharton, Wichita, Wilson and Wise.
Furthermore, 58 counties have issued disaster declarations. There isn’t a 1:1 overlap, likely because Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott issued a state disaster declaration for counties in 2021.
So, what’s the Biden administration doing about it? Everything except convincing Texas voters that they should count on Washington officials to do their job and repel the ongoing invasion.
In December, Gov. Abbott signed a law that allowed Texas law enforcement officials to arrest and deport illegal immigrants taken into custody in the state, among other things. Last week, Biden’s Department of Justice challenged the ruling, arguing that “Texas cannot run its own immigration system.”
“Its efforts, through SB 4, intrude on the federal government’s exclusive authority to regulate the entry and removal of noncitizens, frustrate the United States’ immigration operations and proceedings, and interfere with U.S. foreign relations. SB 4 is invalid and must be enjoined,” the DOJ attorneys claim.
Do you know what else apparently “frustrate[s] the United States’ immigration operations and proceedings,” if Biden administration’s actions are to be believed? A border barrier along the Rio Grande.
Also last week, the Biden administration filed a petition with the Supreme Court alleging Texas’ makeshift border fence, which includes razor wire, hinders Border Patrol agents’ ability to “arrest and detain” illegal immigrants. After they’ve crossed, of course.
And with some “asylum seekers” not having a set court date until 2035, rest assured that anyone who gets over the border and makes a slightly credible claim to stay will be caught, released and mostly forgotten about for the next few years, if not the next decade.
Meanwhile, the administration is urging Republicans to forget about enforcing the law and instead obtain border security by … passing the untenable amnesty package that the president presented to Congress in the early days of his presidency, a suicidal plan that Congress has already shot down.
I’m dead serious; that’s literally what White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said last week:
KJP says it’s “shameful” that Abbott is humanely transporting illegal immigrants to the Sanctuary Cities where Democrat politicians said they would be welcomed. pic.twitter.com/yPtmafv9dR
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) January 2, 2024
While some Democrats are fretting about the state of the border — generally big-city mayors fed up with the flood of migrants — others in the party are worrying they might actually be forced to enforce the law or shut down the government.
As The Hill noted in a Sunday report, the House GOP is pushing an “H.R. 2 or bust” strategy — meaning that Democrats either agree to pass a package that “would slash asylum, mandate border wall construction, supercharge interior enforcement, decrease legal protections for migrant minors and reinvigorate the E-Verify program” or face the possibility of a budget impasse that will force a government shutdown.
The fact that the GOP is insisting Congress pass the bill or shut down the government on Feb. 2 should be viewed as a godsend to Democrats, considering it allows them to contain a toxic situation and then blame the fact that they had to on the GOP. So, naturally, they’re fighting it.
“House Republicans are now holding American families hostage alongside the critical funding our allies desperately need by threatening to shut down the government to pass extreme immigration policies,” said Rep. Nanette Barragan, a California Democrat who heads the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, in response to attempts to make H.R. 2 a precondition for averting a government shutdown.
When the federal government claims it has jurisdiction over enforcing immigration law, that doesn’t mean completely disregarding it for cynical political purposes.
Yet Democrats and the White House have provided ample proof that they’ve abdicated their responsibility under the Constitution to “guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and … protect each of them against Invasion.”
Thus, Texas officials have taken up the duty of reining in the lawlessness — and Washington is fighting it all the way.
What practical effect this has remains to be seen, but roughly one-fifth of Texas counties have now called an obvious invasion by its real name.
It’s time the inside-the-Beltway crowd listened.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
This story originally appeared on TheGateWayPundit
