The Constitutional Basis for State Action to Counter Washington’s Dereliction of Duty
The Constitution provides a firm foundation for states to act decisively in the absence of the federal government. First, the Biden Administration has neglected its duties under Article IV, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution to protect the United States, her citizens and communities being ravaged by this invasion of crime, drugs and humanitarian crisis. Indeed, one can argue that the actions of the administration are effectively facilitating the abrogation of its own obligations.
Known as the guarantee clause, Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution states, “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them from Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic violence.”
Therefore, governors, attorneys general, and state legislatures must take emergency measures–beyond the scope of what has been attempted to this point–to follow through on the primary function of government: protecting its citizens.
The Constitution provides states an appropriate “self-help” remedy under Article I, Section 10, Clause 3, which stipulates that, “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 delay.”
There can be no disputing that the influx of well over 1.3 million illegal immigrants this calendar year alone and thousands of pounds of fentanyl and other deadly narcotics, facilitated by the widespread human trafficking efforts of violent international drug cartels, constitutes an invasion of the southern border of the United States.
These cartels effectively have operational control over vast swaths of the southern border.
Data provided by CBP in March 2021 estimated that cartels and human trafficking organizations are earning nearly $14 million a day moving people illegally across the southern border. These violent international cartels are raking in billions of dollars every year off the pain, suffering, and abuse of migrants.
Furthermore, most illegal drugs and narcotics enter the United States through the southern border, a finding outlined in a threat assessment dossier released by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in March of this year. The DEA report also outlines that fentanyl, a deadly narcotic that is smuggled into the U.S. by violent international drug cartels, is primarily responsible for fueling the ongoing opioid epidemic that killed nearly 37,000 Americans in 2019 and a horrific 57,550 people in 2020.
Governors and state legislators have a duty to their constituents, fellow citizens, neighbors, and families that undergirds the oath they take to uphold both the United States Constitution and their respective state constitutions. Yes, protection of our nation’s borders constitutionally and even statutorily largely falls under the purview of our federal government. But our federal government is not just sitting idle as states and communities suffer, it is willfully refusing to enact the very policies and execute the very laws that can bring the crisis to an end.
The reality is that if the federal government refuses to faithfully execute its own laws, then the states have no recourse but to interpose themselves between the federal government and the people they have sworn to protect in order to achieve deterrence and the removal of illegal aliens.
https://americarenewing.com/issues/policy-brief-how-states-can-secure-the-border/
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