Border disorder falls on Democrats
Republicans have Democrats on the run on the issue of immigration and disorder at the southern border.
And legitimately so. The Biden administration seems paralyzed as the disorder mounts.
Which raises a perplexing political question: Why are Republicans so eager to interrupt the Democratic meltdown on immigration by wildly overpromising what can be done at the state level, making themselves seem silly and unserious?
Gov. Doug Ducey’s recent announcement about an American Governors’ Border Strike Force is a striking case in point. The press release was chock-full of what should be embarrassing non sequiturs and flat-out contradictions.
According to the release, the strike force will be “a partnership to do what the federal government won’t: secure the southern border.”
In reality, the so-called strike force is an agreement among Republican governors to more closely coordinate law enforcement efforts against drug cartels. There may be some benefit to that. But it will make, at most, a marginal contribution to reducing the disorder at the southern border. It is not doing “what the federal government won’t: secure the southern border.”
According to Ducey, the national effort by GOP governors will be based upon his own Arizona Border Strike Force, which the release describes as “successful.” Ducey is quoted as saying: “What we’re doing in Arizona works.” The quantities of illegal drugs interdicted are offered as evidence.
The Arizona Border Strike Force was formed in 2015. Later in the press release, record state deaths from fentanyl overdoses in 2021 are cited as evidence of how bad things are at the border.
If fentanyl overdose deaths are setting records six years after the state border strike force was formed, how can it be described as “successful” and “working?” Or support the claim that duplicating it among GOP-led states will somehow “secure the southern border?”
Ducey is just trying to create the illusion of doing what the federal government won’t in enforcing immigration laws. Kari Lake, the Republican frontrunner to replace him, proposes to actually do it.
Lake advocates a compact among the states to take over immigration enforcement from the federal government, including the power of deportation.
The U.S. Supreme Court has been crystal clear, including in a case involving Arizona, that the federal government is supreme regarding the enforcement of immigration laws. States cannot usurp or duplicate its enforcement activities. States can participate in immigration enforcement only upon the invitation and with the oversight of the federal government.
According to Lake, the constitutional right of states to protect themselves against invasion provides the legal basis for states to elbow the federal government aside and enforce immigration laws independently and directly. No judge is going to see it that way.
Karrin Taylor Robson, a formerly serious person, proposes to arrest illegal immigrants under state trespassing charges. That’s an approach being used by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. It has resulted in sharply increased incarceration costs at the local level, which the state government is picking up, and multiple lawsuits. But no appreciable effect on the disorder at the southern border.
Matt Salmon, another erstwhile serious person, wrote an opinion piece with former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio advocating for a state-funded tent city at the border, although there was ambiguity about who would be incarcerated there.
In addition to appearing silly and unserious, these Republican efforts to pretend that state action can secure the border undermine their political argument that the border disorder is the fault of the Biden administration and Democrats. If state action could truly secure the border, then the disorder is also the fault of border governors such as Ducey and Abbott.
The fault only lies exclusively with President Joe Biden and Democrats if the solution can only come from executive enforcement and immigration law changes. Democrats control the White House and both chambers of Congress.
In reality, only federal action can reduce the disorder at the border. The blizzard of GOP proposals for state action only detracts from the real issue, both substantively and politically.