By Patricia Lopez
The US is inching closer to a constitutional crisis than it has been in years, thanks to a group of rogue Republican state governors determined to follow the cynical demands of a former president desperate to regain power.
Twenty-five Republican governors are backing Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's insurgent standoff with the federal government over border issues, publicly declaring their support in a statement that read: "We stand in solidarity with our colleague Gov. Greg Abbott and the State of Texas in using of every tool and strategy, including wire fences, for border security”.
On Jan. 22, the U.S. Supreme Court confirmed that the federal government does have the authority to remove the barbed wire that Abbott ordered along Eagle Pass, near the Rio Grande, on the U.S.-Mexico border. In essence, the governors are defying the highest court of the land.
The deliberate "Trump" wreck of the deal in Congress
Former President Donald Trump is there to pull them on his bandwagon. He boasted over the weekend that he had wrecked a hard-fought compromise in the federal Senate on immigration, praising House Speaker Mike Johnson for declaring the bill "dead" before the chamber had even considered it. When news broke that the deal was falling apart because of Trump, Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina called it "immoral" for the GOP to deny a necessary compromise just to help Trump's effort to return to White House.
"I didn't come here to the Senate to boss the president or any candidate for president," Tillis told NBC News. "I came here to pass good and beneficial policies. It's unethical of me for people to think I turned a blind eye because I thought this was the key to President Trump winning the election."
Trump, who already faces 91 felony charges in four different US jurisdictions, including his role in the events of January 6, 2021, now appears to be inciting a different kind of rebellion, urging "all willing states to deploy their troops in Texas to prevent illegal immigrants from entering and to move them back across the border."
Friends of Texas
The US federal border authority is well established and has been upheld in its powers by the US Supreme Court. Today that power is being tested like never before. In one recent incident, Abbott ordered Texas National Guard troops to prevent US Border Patrol agents from providing aid to migrants in distress while crossing the Rio Grande. As a result, a woman and two children drowned.
There is no doubt that the situation has reached crisis levels. Federal agents made contact with nearly 2,5 million immigrants at the southern border last year and about 250.000 in December alone. At El Paso-area points of entry just last week, officers seized 291 pounds of methamphetamine, fentanyl, cocaine, and marijuana.
This makes it all the more infuriating that Trump is fueling outrage while deliberately sabotaging productive solutions so he can continue to label immigrants as “parasites” who “poison the blood” of the country, using language that sounds more Hitler than American. presidential candidate.
So far, governors, some of whom are either eager to receive kickbacks and favors from Trump or are auditioning to later become his running mate, are ramping up their campaigning. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (who was backing Ron DeSandis over Trump for the Republican presidential nomination) tweeted on X last week that “Iowa sent its National Guard and state police to the border last year to stop this invasion. Iowa stands next to Texas." This kind of theater in 2022 cost taxpayers nearly $2 million in federal funds meant for Covid relief and restarting the economy. It didn't solve the problem.
Mutiny in the National Guard?
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt went further, publicly questioning whether state National Guard troops would obey if Biden placed them under federal jurisdiction. "I think they would be in a difficult dilemma between protecting their homeland or following what Biden would tell them to do," Stitt said.
Biden, of course, is commander-in-chief of the armed forces, and there should be no question of whose orders the National Guard should follow. Troops defying presidential orders could find themselves in serious trouble and military discipline would break down.
Adding to the chaos and instability, organizers of a convoy under the general title "Take Our Border Back" told Vice News that they are heading to the southern border in the belief that it is a "biblical, monumental dot". The convoy, which calls itself "God's Army," began organizing before Trump's directive, but there is no doubt that his rhetoric has fueled anti-immigrant sentiment that can be difficult to control.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, called the crisis caused by Republican governors "shameful because we have a border situation that needs to be fixed and Republicans walked away from the best deal we could have had." succeed for half a century. They just want to scare people."
What's more troubling, he said, is that "they're not just defying Biden, they're creating a constitutional crisis that could divide the country." The Supreme Court decision should have put an end to the controversy, he noted, but "now these governors are using their citizens and National Guard in direct opposition to this decision."
Constitutional stunts
Eric Janus, a constitutional law expert and former dean of the Mitchell Hamline School of Law in Minnesota, called the situation serious and dangerous.
"The political dimension behind all of this is clear," Janus said. "But here there is a deeper philosophical thread. All of this is part of a radical agenda to free the states from the constraints they have as members of the confederation of states that make up the USA. It is authoritarian in nature and very, very dangerous. There are certain rules that have preserved the integrity of our democracy. Among them is the fact that when the Supreme Court decides, it is final and binding on everyone. You accept it and work to change the existing system."
Janus is most bothered by the fact that Abbott and others are twisting the meaning of a somewhat vague section of Article 1 of the US Constitution that refers to a state's ability to defend itself against invasion.
"First, there is no invasion," Janus says. “This provision of the constitution has nothing to do with the situation and I have no doubt that the Supreme Court will rule the same. There is simply no support in the constitutional text for what Abbott is claiming."
Solution
There is another path here, one away from the demands of a self-proclaimed would-be dictator who seeks to further divide and distract. And it cannot be found in the frivolous efforts of governors who wish to usurp federal power as they divide the borders of the US into tiny state fiefdoms.
The small group of Republican and Democratic senators working diligently with the White House to resolve the border crisis shows us the way. We can have strong border enforcement that sends real resources to the border, is humane, and reduces labor shortages that become severe enough to threaten companies' ability to expand.
Biden said the deal would include emergency authority to “close the borders when they are overwhelmed. If the president was given that power, I would use it the day I signed the bill."
It is time to move away from the perpetual anger, division and resentment that has proven so fruitless and work towards real solutions.
Performance – Editing – Selection of Texts (2019-2024): G.D. Pavlopoulos
photo - source https://www.capital.gr/
