The Biden presidency’s dedication to demolishing Trump-era southern border safeguards and Title 42 compounded the border conflict.
In March, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) faced 172,331 illegal immigrants.
CBP faced 221,303 illegal immigrants at the southern border in April, surpassing 1.06 million for the first half of 2022. The DHS dropped 80,000 migrants into the U.S.
Undocumented immigrants have caused significant problems.
Operation Lone Star, formed by Gov. Greg Abbott to replace federal agency inadequacies, led to roughly 14,000 criminal arrests, 3,800 guns seized, and more than 300 million fatal doses of fentanyl intercepted at the border.
In 2021, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said the public pays $850 million for illegal immigrant amenities.
Not a single shooting in new york city is happening with a legal firearm.
Closing our southern borders will help reduce illegal gun trafficking.
Banning firearms from law abiding citizens won't help.
— Benine Najim Hamdan (@najimbenine) May 30, 2022
Human Trafficking and Deaths
U.S. Representative Chip Roy, who represents Texas’ 21st Suburb, explained to the Committee on Public Investigating a recent San Antonio 911 call.
County Sheriff’s office, National Security Investigations, Texas DPS, as well as the San Antonio Police Department, searched for a large road tanker after a distraught migrant pleaded with a 911 dispatcher for help, saying the commuters were trapped and dying from lack of air.
The immigrant disclosed 80 victims of trafficking, but none were saved.
Watch 📺: Rep. Chip Roy tells the stories of everyday human trafficking in the state of Texas as a direct result of our wide-open Southern Border. pic.twitter.com/WaPsSUTcm3
— Rep. Chip Roy Press Office (@RepChipRoy) February 23, 2022
Border Patrol discovered 383 dead migrants last year, the most in a decade. Many Texas ranchers fear retribution from Mexican cartels and wish to remain anonymous because of it.
Texas and Missouri sued the Biden administration for suspending the MPP, or “Remain in Mexico” policy.
The Supreme Court hears a preliminary hearing on April 26, but reversing the suspension is too little, too late for Texans. Rep. Matt Krause of Texas has suggested a creative solution to the border crisis.
In a letter to Paxton, the chairman asked Texas to consider using the “State Self Defense” or “Invasion Clause” of the U.S. Constitution to autonomously control the border, as the Biden presidency has refused to do so.
Before this appeal, many Texas leaders testified.
Tracy Norris, major general of the Texas Army National Guard, said the “federal government has given no assistance for this objective [border security].”
The State Self Defense Clause
Krause’s question cited Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich’s viewpoint that the crisis at Arizona’s southern border, infuriated by cartel and gang activity, satisfies constitutional provisions that embolden states to act independently.
Article IV, Section IV’s “Invasion Clause” guarantees the following: “The United States must therefore protect each state against incursion.”
The debate would be whether thousands of migrants swamping southern states daily constitute an invasion.
Originalists may look to Johnson’s 1785 English dictionary, popular when the Constitution was drafted, defining invasion as a “hostile entry upon the privileges or belongings of another.”
The Cambridge Dictionary defines an invasion as “an irksome and unwanted influx of people or things.” James Madison wrote in Federalist No. 43 that invasion safety includes “ambitious or vicious enterprises.”
Section IV doesn’t define “invasion.” Invasion can be applied to cartels and gangs.
