The battle between the feds and the government of Texas (and, now, numerous members of the TX National Guard, as well as many so-called “Red State” governments that are pledging to join Texas Governor Greg Abbott) is the biggest constitutional conflict since most of us were born.
It is not a “standoff.” It is active, dynamic, kinetic, and already has seen the governors of Georgia, Montana, Florida, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Virgina not only backing Greg Abbott and his legal team’s argument in favor of state border authority, but also has seen those governors pledge to send their own National Guard troops to Texas to protect that state’s southern border, and to defy – possibly to fight – armed federal attempts to usurp their constitutionally insured state prerogatives.
Florida Governor Ron De Santis (R) January 24 expanded on his 2021 pledge to send National Guard support to Texas, announcing on X:
“If the Constitution really made states powerless to defend themselves against an invasion, it wouldn’t have been ratified in the first place and Texas would have never joined the union when it did. TX is upholding the law while Biden is flouting it. FL will keep assisting Texas with personnel and assets.”
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem (R) also reiterated her 2021 pledge to support Abbott in his government’s attempt to police its southern border with Mexico, announcing on X:
“.@GregAbbott_TX is exactly right to invoke Texas’ constitutional authority to defend itself. The Biden Administration has created a national security crisis and put Americans in danger. Their failure is an unconstitutional dereliction of duty. South Dakota has been proud to help Gov. Abbott’s efforts to secure our border.”
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) January 24 X’d:
“Virginia stands with Texas. @GregAbbott_TX is doing the job Joe Biden and his border czar refuse to do to secure our border. The Biden administration has turned every state into a border state. We must stop the flow of fentanyl, save lives, and secure our southern border.”
Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt (R) also declared support, via X, reposting a video clip of marching Texas National Guard troops and stating:
“Oklahoma stands with Texas.”
And, on January 23, Montana Governor Greg Gianforte (R) X’d:
“Governor @GregAbbott_TX is doing what @POTUS won’t. By refusing to act, President Biden is inviting cartels, illegal drugs, and human trafficking into the United States. We must secure the southern border.”
But, leveraging the fatuous January 22 US Supreme Court ruling that saw Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett side with the left and okay the Biden Administration tearing down state border barriers, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre both occluded and further politicized the conflict.
Related: Biden Is Challenging Texas in the Supreme Court Over Illegal Immigration
As Newsweek’s Andrew Stanton notes, Jean-Pierre appeared on friendly CNN and stated:
"Look, if the governor is not interested in that—Governor Abbott is not interested in that, he wants to politicize an issue, and he's not helping communities, he actually isn't, and he's actually putting border patrol agents in harm's way by doing what he's doing. I'm not going to speak to any actions that the president might take, might not take, but we have been very clear about it."
Neither she, nor the majority of the Supreme Court, nor Joe Biden has admitted that the words “immigration” and “immigrant” do not appear in the US Constitution. None of the pro-central government blowhards has addressed the constitutional and historical reality that border control is supposed to be a state matter during times when there is no Declared War (caps are found in the Constitution).
And neither Jean-Pierre, nor that Supreme Court majority, nor Joe Biden has addressed the facts that when Texas entered the union, it included a Bureau of Immigration in its state constitution, that Thomas Jefferson and James Madison both acknowledged that immigration/border control are left to the states, and that the only ways for federal military intervention to proceed are if Congress declares War against an invading nation-state, if Congress grants Letters of Marque and Reprisal against non-state invaders, or if a state legislature or a governor (if the legislature is not in session) ASK the feds to lead militias into said state to “protect its constitutional” form of government from invasion, insurrection, or violence.
In fact, Abbott’s official January 24 letter to the Biden Administration marks one of the first times since the Jeffersonian Era that any political leader actually has spelled out the clear constitutional prerogatives and the constitutional process by which the states, first, are supposed to control their borders, and, second, can request federal assistance – assistance that Biden assiduously has denied.
On a constitutional level, Abbott wrote:
“James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and the other visionaries who wrote the U.S. Constitution foresaw that States should not be left to the mercy of a lawless president who does nothing to stop external threats like cartels smuggling millions of illegal immigrants across the border. That is why the Framers included both Article IV, § 4, which promises that the federal government ‘shall protect each [State] against invasion,’ and Article I, § 10, Clause 3, which acknowledges ‘the States’ sovereign interest in protecting their borders.’ Arizona v. United States, 567 U.S. 387, 419 (2012) (Scalia, J., dissenting).”
He added:
“The failure of the Biden Administration to fulfill the duties imposed by Article IV, § 4 has triggered Article I, § 10, Clause 3, which reserves to this State the right of self-defense. For these reasons, I have already declared an invasion under Article I, § 10, Clause 3 to invoke Texas’s constitutional authority to defend and protect itself. That authority is the supreme law of the land and supersedes any federal statutes to the contrary. The Texas National Guard, the Texas Department of Public Safety, and other Texas personnel are acting on that authority, as well as state law, to secure the Texas border”
And on a day-to-day, practical level, Abbott observed:
“Under President Biden’s lawless border policies, more than 6 million illegal immigrants have crossed our southern border in just 3 years. That is more than the population of 33 different States in this country. This illegal refusal to protect the States has inflicted unprecedented harm on the People all across the United States.”
Abbott’s constitutional move and the support from numerous other state governors all call into question the Biden Administration’s unconstitutional, flagrantly arrogant claim to control state borders and to simultaneously undercut the interests of those confederated political units. This conflict pits the states against decades of fraudulent central government usurpations and against the federal government attempting to financially pressure members of the National Guard (which really should be understood as the Militia in each state, and better known as all of us of gun-bearing age, as the Founders intended) into compliance.
Which will win?
Will the bloated, debt-inflated federal government get its way? The Biden DHS Tuesday sent a new letter to the Texas government, demanding that the Texas government stand down at “the Shelby Park area” and grant the feds open access to tear down the border barriers.
The Texas government has not complied. They are adding more razor-wire.
The feds also now are claiming they can enter private land within 25 miles of the border.
The Texas government will have to stand against that, as well.
This battle is going to intensify.
It will expose who believes in the US Constitution, private property, and federalism, and who does not.
Under Article One, Section Ten, Clause Three, state governments can engage cross-border enemies if those governments determine they are being invaded by other nations.
Technically, the illegal aliens are not state-uniformed military members. It is the militarized US government that Biden is threatening to use against Texas -- another form of invasion, being directed from Washington, DC.
This is going to get uglier, and the learning curve will be steep for those who do not know the US Constitution or US history, but it is essential that more of our neighbors do so, as we watch the states try to defend their constitutional interests.
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