Texas latest state to mess with the feds

SAN DIEGO — It’s time to mess with Texas. President Biden needs to show the Lone Star State who is really in charge.

Hint: Under our federalist system of government, it’s not the states.

That is especially true along the U.S.-Mexico border, where Texas Republicans are making mischief — with deadly consequences.

The Constitution is clear about which jurisdiction gets the final say. The Supremacy Clause (Article VI, Clause 2) dictates that the Constitution, federal laws and international treaties represent the “supreme Law of the Land,” which takes precedence over conflicting state laws.

It’s true that the 10th Amendment gives additional powers to the states, and to the people. But that refers only to powers “not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States.”

And the Constitution — in Article I, Section 8, Clause 4 — explicitly delegates to the federal government the power to establish a “uniform Rule of Naturalization.” It’s the federal government, and not the states, that manages immigration policy. This includes controlling borders and ports.

This should ring a bell for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Gov. Greg Abbott.

When Republicans run the White House, they’re big fans of federalism. During the Trump administration, Attorney General Jeff Sessions went after California for its “sanctuary” policies regarding illegal immigrants and clashed with Colorado after that state legalized medical marijuana.

Now Paxton and Abbott are arguing from the other side of the table. They’re essentially claiming that the doctrine of states’ rights includes seizing control of part of the U.S.-Mexico border.

The Texas National Guard has orders to not allow U.S. Border Patrol agents to access a 2.5-mile stretch of the border near Eagle Pass — an area that includes the municipal Shelby Park — and has blocked it off.

According to media reports, Border Patrol agents who tried to render aid last week to a woman and two children who were attempting to cross the river were prevented from entering the park by the Texas National Guard. The migrants drowned. The deceased were identified as Victerma de la Sancha Cerros, 33; Yorlei Rubi, 10; and Jonathan Agustín Briones de la Sancha, 8.

It would be unfair to ascribe the responsibility for these deaths solely to Paxton and Abbott, but it’s undeniable that their boneheaded stunt contributed to the tragedy.

Do these two Texans really think that, in butting heads with the federal government to score political points at home, they’ve devised a unique plan that no other opportunistic politician ever thought of before?

When a state gets too big for its britches and tangles with the federal government, the latter can squash the former like a bug. That’s federalism.

Just look at how the Southern states fared in trying to preserve Jim Crow during the Civil Rights movement: not well.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration has demanded that Texas officials give Border Patrol agents access to Shelby Park.

According to the Dallas Morning News, Paxton responded with a letter that was truly bizarre. He acknowledged that the Border Patrol has, under the law, the right to access Texas soil within 25 miles of the border. But, Paxton insisted, that access exists “for the purpose of patrolling the border to prevent the illegal entry of aliens into the United States.” He claimed that the law doesn’t apply in this case because the Biden administration is not “trying to prevent the illegal entry of aliens.”

Really? Tell that to the hundreds of thousands of people who — according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection — were deported in fiscal year 2023 by the Department of Homeland Security.

Imagine Paxton as a lawyer defending an accused car thief. He might argue: “What does it matter that the car was stolen? The owner wasn’t using it anyway.”

For those keeping score, Republicans in the Lone Star State have complained loudly that the Biden administration isn’t policing the border. Now those same Texas Republicans are preventing law enforcement officers who work for the administration from even getting close to the border.

It’s true that everything is bigger in Texas. Especially the absurdity.