Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton vowed to continue to take the lead in fighting the radical agenda of the Biden administration in an opinion piece for Fox News. One of Biden’s earliest executive orders, which would essentially stop all immigration enforcement except in cases of espionage and terrorism, would have a significant impact on Texas. The state has the largest portion of the border with Mexico inside its state lines.
Paxton filed a lawsuit alleging that this is an abdication of the administration’s responsibility to enforce federally enacted laws two days after the order was signed. His filing in the Southern District of Texas resulted in a restraining order preventing the administration from implementing the moratorium on deportations. A nationwide injunction has extended this ruling. As much as district court judges’ issuing nationwide orders is controversial, a porous border affects all states. Once illegal immigrants are released, they travel all over the United States to reunite with family or friends.
Paxton has joined 13 other state attorneys general in sending a letter to President Biden to inform him that the group is looking at options to fight the Keystone XL pipeline’s cancelation.
Paxton is also preparing to oppose any legislation or executive order that infringes on Americans’ Second Amendment rights.
For all intents and purposes, the current bills in Congress would have the ability to create a national registry using the NCIS system. Background checks for firearms are supposed to be removed from the system according to the 1993 Brady law. In 2000, the NRA sued Attorney General Janet Reno because she had retained the information for audit purposes for as long as six months. The NRA lost the suit because Reno did it under an administrative procedure that went through the public comment period. No one would be surprised if an attorney general named Merrick Garland used a similar administrative loophole.
Paxton clearly outlined how Democrats and their aligned activist groups used the courts to prevent President Trump from upholding the law. They moved to stop the administration from conditioning federal law enforcement funding on a state or city enforcing federal immigration law and challenged the ban on training based on critical race theory, to name a few. Paxton, by contrast, is trying to force the administration to uphold the law and recognize the constitutional rights of the citizenry if necessary.
Other Republican-led states need to support Paxton leading the charge. The next four years could challenge the federalist system in many ways. Biden’s housing policy is a federal takeover of local planning and zoning. The upending of Title IX regarding trans rights and the eventual elimination of due process for young men on college campuses also require resistance. However, it might be time to take a page from Democrat-run states that could be very uncomfortable for law-and-order Republicans.
With Democrats in charge of the legislative and executive branches, governors are the next line of defense to ensure their citizens’ rights. If California and countless municipalities across the nation can opt-out of enforcing immigration law, or pick and choose which laws they will enforce, claiming prosecutorial discretion, perhaps it is time to play by the rules they have set. Refuse to enforce blatantly unconstitutional laws. Unlike Democrat leaders, Republicans would be upholding the law by refusing to enforce unconstitutional statutes and reasserting the federalist system that started to erode with the popular election of senators.
Failing the 23 Republican trifectas at the state level standing up the way Paxton is, your last bulwark is your local sheriff. If your sheriff is elected, he or she takes an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States. Mine was fantastic during COVID-19, stating that guidelines were not laws and were not enforceable by his office. Several have declared their jurisdiction as Second-Amendment sanctuaries. Well worth getting to know where yours stands and if he will stand his ground.
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