The following contains content which is editorial in nature and reflects the opinion of the writer.
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PHOENIX, AZ- As the administration sends troops to protect the border—no, not our border—the border between Ukraine and Russia, one border state attorney general has had enough, the Washington Times reports.
On Monday, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich issued a legal opinion in which he said the surge of illegals crossing the border from Mexico into the United States meets the legal definition of an “invasion” under the United States Constitution.
Brnovich’s ruling only applies to the legal auspices of the situation, and he noted it is up to Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey to make the actual determination, which would allow the state to “defend itself” under Article I, Section 10 of the Constitution.
“The on-the-ground violence and lawlessness at Arizona’s border caused by cartels and gangs is extensive, well-documented, and persistent. It can satisfy the definition of ‘actually invaded’ and ‘invasion’ under the U.S. Constitution,” Brnovich, a Republican wrote in his opinion.
Article 1, Section 10 reads:
“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.” [emphasis added]
According to Constitution Annotated, this section “contemplates the use of the state’s military power to put down an armed insurrection too strong to be controlled by civil authority…” [emphasis added]
Clearly, Brnovich seems to be on the right track, since not only Arizona but also New Mexico, California and Texas have been basically overrun by an “armed insurrection” otherwise known as Mexican drug cartels.
Brnovich was asked for an assessment by a member of the Arizona state assembly. This is just the latest in a war of words between border states (basically Arizona and Texas, which have borne the brunt) and the Biden administration as the crisis at our southern border has spiraled out of control.
Estimates say that over two million illegals were encountered on the southern US border last year, and that number doesn’t include the “got-aways.”
Yet despite all of that, the administration has basically seemed to turn a blind eye to the crisis. Kamala Harris, who was put “in charge”
It is difficult to even get the administration to admit there is a problem, let alone what is amounting to a full-scale invasion of our country.
Some who know exactly what is going on the border are sheriffs, who are dealing with the criminal fallout of the invasion.
Sheriffs, as well as a bipartisan group of elected officials, say the word “’crisis’ undersells what they’re seeing,” the Washington Times reported. Some border cities, in fact, have declared states of emergency over the situation.
Brnovich’s opinion however ratchets the situation up one of constitutional concern.
The attorney general said that the key sections in the Constitution aside from Article 1, Section 10, is Article IV, Section 4, which requires the federal government to guarantee each state a republican form of government and to “protect each of them from invasion.” On that point, the federal government is failing miserably.
Of course, not everyone agrees with Brnovich. The CT Post citing the AP reports that Paul Bender, a constitutional law professor at Arizona State University disagrees.
“I think the invasions the Framers had in mind were organized invasions by the governments of other countries, not by disorganized undocumented aliens,” he said.
Read Article IV, Section 4 again—it doesn’t differentiate who the “invasion” is coming from…it merely says “protect each of them from invasion.” Period.
The framers of the Constitution were careful not to restrict the states because there were a number of them which were fearful of a powerful central government, which is why any powers not specifically granted to the federal government are reserved for the states. Bender is wrong, in our opinion.
Brnovich agrees with our assessment, noting that the Constitution’s “state self-defense and invasion clauses are not limited to an invasion by a hostile state.”
Ducey, who is unable to run for reelection due to term limits responded to Brnovich’s ruling through a spokesman, saying Ducey has already had National Guard troops at Arizona’s border for nearly a year. Brnovich is seeking the Republican nomination to run for US Senate in the state.
For more on the border along with an actual admission that the border crisis is out of control, we invite you to:
DIG DEEPER
WASHINGTON, DC – The DHS Secretary admits that the border crisis is worse now than it has been in 20 years according to audio leaked that was obtained by Townhall.
EXCLUSIVE: I was given audio of DHS Sec Mayorkas’ meeting with Border Patrol agents in the Yuma Sector today. It did not go well. One agent turned his back on Mayorkas.
Mayorkas admitted the border is the worse it’s been in over 20 years, “if not ever.” https://t.co/hAdryUWeke
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) January 26, 2022
Current Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas met with several members of the Border Patrol on January 26th to discuss several issues.
During the meeting, Mayorkas admitted that the increasing number of illegal border crossings has made the job worse for those in charge of securing our border.
During a recording of the meeting, obtained by Townhall, Mayorkas said:
“The job has not gotten easier over the last few months, and it was very, very difficult throughout 2021. I know apprehending families and kids is not what you signed up to do.
And now we got a composition that is changing even more with Cubans, Venezuelans, Nicaraguans, and the like, it just gets more difficult…
“I know the policies of this administration are not particularly popular with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, but that’s the reality and let’s see what we can do within that framework.”
DHS Sec. Mayorkas acknowledges that the border crisis is not under control in the meeting with Yuma sector agents, saying, “it’s worse now than it, frankly, has been in at least 20 years, if not ever.” #BorderCrisis #BidenWorstPresidentEver #ImpeachBiden https://t.co/x9RDaKP8wW
— 🅱🆁🅰🅽🅳🅾🅽 aka Sir Silly (@try2b2) January 28, 2022
During the meeting, an unidentified federal agent stood up and asked the question that probably a lot of others in attendance were thinking…how border security is the main mission for the agency and yet they are allegedly not allowed to patrol the border.
The agent alleged that Border Patrol was being used to process thousands of illegal aliens into the country as opposed to securing the border.
After the agent asked the question, he allegedly turned his back on the secretary who responded:
“Let me just say, you can turn your back on me, but I’ll never turn my back on you.”
Another agent took the opportunity to point out the overcrowding that has been reported at different processing sites, including in the Yuma Sector where the meeting was occurring.
The agent told Mayorkas that it is not their job or responsibility to be processing illegal aliens and taking care of the family units.
Another asked Mayorkas why the number of illegal aliens was low in the Migrant Protection Protocols (Remain in Mexico) after the Biden Administration was ordered by a judge to reinstitute the practice.
Mayorkas conceded that the number of illegal aliens in the program were not sufficient:
“The numbers are not where they need to be. I agree with that.”
The policy was enacted under Republican President Donald Trump which forced those seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border to remain in Mexico while their asylum cases played out. This was one of the first policies that President Biden suspended when he took office in January of 2021.
The administration was forced to reinstate the policy by U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk of the Northern District of Texas.
Later in the meeting when Mayorkas and the agents were specifically speaking about the overall conditions at the southern border, Mayorkas slipped:
“Look, it’s worse now than it, frankly, has been in at least 20 years, if not ever.”
One person who agrees with Mayorkas on this point is Steven Kopits who is with the Princeton Policy Advisors. Kopits analyzed the number of illegal aliens that will come into the country this year will outpace last years. He said:
“Given the comparatively steady pace of apprehensions, we might expect recent experience under the Biden administration to continue.
Under such circumstances, we forecast 2.1 million apprehensions for both calendar year and fiscal year 2022, both records besting not only all other administrations but even the Biden administration’s disastrous first year.”
Sec. Mayorkas told CBP officials that the border is the worst it’s been in 20 years.
This crisis was created by Joe Biden and Congressional Democrats’ open-border policies. https://t.co/b2ml5dMaxr
— House Republicans (@HouseGOP) January 27, 2022
While the reported numbers of illegal alien apprehensions are alarming, at least to some, another number is not addressed. That would be the number of illegal aliens that have come into the country undetected.
It would be easy to assume that those numbers, like the apprehensions, have also increased since President Biden has taken office. However, unlike the number of apprehensions made, there is no possibility of accurately estimating that number.
Billions in border wall materials rusting away under Biden, may be sold for ‘pennies on the dollar’
COCHISE COUNTY, AZ – The “big, beautiful border wall” envisioned by former President Donald Trump is now rusting away in scrap heaps in the southwestern borderland, and material bought with billions of taxpayer dollars to build the wall will now likely be sold for “a penny on the dollar.”
The material once earmarked for creating a border across the southern border with Mexico to help control illegal border crossings and drug trafficking have lain in the Arizona desert since President Joe Biden took office in January.
In an executive order issued by President Biden on Inauguration Day, he ordered:
“My Administration is committed to ensuring that the United States has a comprehensive and humane immigration system that operates consistently with our Nation’s values.
In furtherance of that commitment, I have determined that the declaration of a national emergency at our southern border in Proclamation 9844 of February 15, 2019 (Declaring a National Emergency Concerning the Southern Border of the United States), was unwarranted.
“It shall be the policy of my Administration that no more American taxpayer dollars be diverted to construct a border wall. I am also directing a careful review of all resources appropriated or redirected to construct a southern border wall.”
In the same proclamation, the President stated that Trump’s border wall plan was “not a serious policy solution” and an “waste of money.”
The President’s concern about wasting taxpayer money does not seem to extend to the millions of materials now lining the desert after construction companies and workers walked away from the project the day after the proclamation.
Some of the material wasting away are steel bollards—18- or 33-foot-long hollow posts, most of them reinforced with concrete and rebar—worth at least a quarter of a billion dollars.
Technically, the material is owned by the Department of Defense, but what to do with the material and who is responsible has been an unresolved issue since the proclamation.
When the President made his “Day One” proclamation stopping construction on the wall, no provisions or instructions were made between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, who managed the project, and contractors who held contracts.
Also, no plans were enacted to address the massive and expensive materials already delivered for the border wall construction.
Construction companies that lost their contracts are now trying to obtain authorization to sell the scrap.
Large portions of the materials are located in Cochise County, Arizona. Cochise County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) Sgt. Tim Williams commented:
“They’re probably going to get a penny on the dollar for it.”
Another major issue with the valuable piles of junk and wasted items is the unfinished lighting, ground sensors, and cameras left behind, according to a report in The Epoch Times. Sgt. Williams explained:
“The big problem is that the fiber optics are in the ground already, and if they don’t turn it on in the next two months, the fiber optics will go dormant, and we won’t get them back.
“So, all those billions of dollars of fiber optics in the ground because there was only 24 months shelf life, they can be dormant and we’re at 22 months right now—we’re talking about losing billions of dollars because they didn’t turn the system on.”
As government agencies and construction companies try to resolve what will happen to the abandoned materials, a report by Senate Republicans issued in July 2021 states that the construction stoppage is costing taxpayers millions per day.
The report from GOP staff on the Subcommittee on Government Operations and Border Management, prepared by Senator James Lankford (R) of Oklahoma, claims that the Biden administration is spending nearly $3 million a day paying subcontractors to guard border-wall materials and keep work sites safe.
Senators who produced the report estimated that the administration has spent between $618 million and $708 million to contractors between Jan. 20, 2021, and July 15, 2021, and will ultimately spend up to $1.2 billion more to exit the border wall projects, according to the news outlet.
The President halted construction of the border wall as part of a larger effort to sever his administration from Trump-era policies. The move backfired, however, in the year since.
Illegal border crossings have skyrocketed to record levels.
The Pew Research group found that the U.S. Border Patrol reported more than 1.6 million encounters with migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border in the 2021 fiscal year, more than quadruple the number of the prior fiscal year and the highest annual total on record.
Pew Research wrote:
“The number of encounters had fallen to just over 400,000 in fiscal 2020 as the coronavirus outbreak slowed migration across much of the world.
But encounters at the southwest border rebounded sharply in fiscal 2021 and ultimately eclipsed the previous annual high recorded in fiscal 2000, according to recently published data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the federal agency that encompasses the Border Patrol.
“Southwest border encounters increased to their highest recorded level in fiscal 2021. The Border Patrol reported 1,659,206 encounters with migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border last fiscal year, narrowly exceeding the prior highs of 1,643,679 in 2000 and 1,615,844 in 1986.”
Republicans have attacked the President and his administration for their lenient handling of illegal immigration and lack of enforcement.
In August 2021, the Biden administration issued new guidance instructing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to refrain from detaining and deporting immigrants who were victims of crimes, barring extraordinary circumstances.
In February 2021, ICE agents were directed to focus on arresting recent border-crossers and those deemed to pose a national security or public safety threat, requiring officers to seek supervisory approval before detaining other immigrants.
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