Joe’s Constitutional Crisis
Team Biden’s border chaos is becoming a dangerous constitutional crisis, pitting Texas against the president. Make no mistake: Lone Star State Gov. Greg Abbott holds all the moral high cards here — and some legal ones, too.
With President Biden refusing to enforce immigration law and millions flooding in illegally, Texas has been utterly swamped. So Abbott has installed razor wire on the border and taken control of riverfront Shelby Park to deter migrants — as Biden should be doing.
Last Monday, the Supreme Court ruled the feds can cut that wire while their lawsuit against Texas and the wire plays out. What a horrific spectacle: Texas is looking to secure the border (which Biden finally admits isn’t secure), yet the feds are aiming to block him.
It’s madness. Will the two sides play razorwire whack-a-mole? Will it come to blows?
“The federal government has broken the compact between the United States and the States,” the Texan said Wednesday. The executive branch has a “constitutional duty to enforce” federal laws that protect states, he argues, but is instead violating those laws.
The Constitution gives states the right to defend themselves, so Abbott has declared an “invasion” and invoked “Texas’ constitutional authority” to exercise that right, which “supersedes any federal statutes to the contrary.”
That is: Abbott claims the Constitution grants him authority to ignore the feds to keep border-jumpers out. His legal argument is strong, but his moral argument — about protecting the state (and the country) — is unassailable.
Only perverse open-border radicals still deny the border is a nightmare, with a newrecord-high 300,000-plus migrants crossing in December, and needs to be secured.
Of course, none of all this Sturm und Drang would be necessary if the Bidenites just followed the law; the House just unveiled articles of impeachment against Homeland Security chief Alejandro Mayorkas over the issue.
Abbott’s not backing down, so it’s becoming a question of whether a president who won’t act against Iran even as its proxies are killing American soldiers will instead crack down on a governor who’s simply trying to enforce the laws that the prez won’t.