Joe Biden created a historic border crisis when he laid out the welcome mat for illegal immigrants to invade our country. And for sure, they’ve been flooding our country in record numbers. This week, the Supreme Court decided to side with the Biden administration and give them the power to remove the razor wire.
Almost immediately, Republicans began urging Texas to ignore the Supreme Court, and it has. Gov. Greg Abbott, citing the Constitution, argued that Texas has a right to defend itself from invasion. "That authority is the supreme law of the land and supersedes any federal statutes to the contrary,” he said. "The Texas National Guard, the Texas Department of Public Safety, and other Texas personnel are acting on that authority, as well as state law, to secure the Texas border."
"James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and the other visionaries who wrote the U.S. Constitution foresaw that States should not be left to the mercy of a lawless president who does nothing to stop external threats," Abbott added.
Naturally, Democrats starting calling on Joe Biden to federalize the Texas National Guard to stop them from securing the border.
"Abbott is using the Texas Guard to defy a Supreme Court ruling,” failed Senate candidate and failed presidential candidate Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke said. "When Gov. Faubus did this in 1957, Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas Guard to ensure compliance with the law. Biden must follow this example of bold, decisive leadership to end this crisis before it gets worse."
The federalization of National Guard troops is a rare occurrence in American history, but the move would hardly be out of the realm of possibility by Joe Biden, who has refused to acknowledge the border crisis and has fought any state that has tried to enforce our nation’s immigration laws.
The White House has so far refused to rule out making this move.
"I don’t have any pending decision by the — by the President as Commander-in-Chief to federalize the Texas National Guard,” NSC Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby said in response to a question earlier this week. "I mean, obviously, as Commander-in-Chief, he has that option. But I’m not going to get ahead of any decision space that the President might be in."
He dodged the question again on Wednesday, after Abbott defied the Supreme Court. So, make no mistake about it, Kirby acknowledged (dare I say, threatened) that Biden does have the authority to do so, which certainly suggests that Biden may very well attempt to do this at some point.
In 1963, Governor George Wallace (D) infamously ordered the Alabama National Guard to prevent the integration of the University of Alabama, only to have President John F. Kennedy federalize the National Guard troops, which led to the Guard General commanding Wallace to step aside.
Unlike Kennedy, Joe Biden is on the wrong side, legally and morally. But, you can bet that if he were to attempt the federalization of Texas National Guard troops, he'd compare his actions to that of Kennedy or Eisenhower. But, what will happen if Biden does go through with it? Abbott has the Constitution on his side, but Biden does have the authority to federalize the Texas National Guard.
Abbott has the support of at least 24 Republican governors, who released a statement on Thursday.
“President Biden and his Administration have left Americans and our country completely vulnerable to unprecedented illegal immigration pouring across the Southern border,” they said. “Instead of upholding the rule of law and securing the border, the Biden Administration has attacked and sued Texas for stepping up to protect American citizens from historic levels of illegal immigrants, deadly drugs like fentanyl, and terrorists entering our country."
“We stand in solidarity with our fellow Governor, Greg Abbott, and the State of Texas in utilizing every tool and strategy, including razor wire fences, to secure the border,” they continued. “The authors of the U.S. Constitution made clear that in times like this, states have a right of self-defense, under Article 4, Section 4 and Article 1, Section 10, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution. Because the Biden Administration has abdicated its constitutional compact duties to the states, Texas has every legal justification to protect the sovereignty of our states and our nation.”
So what happens if Biden federalizes troops to essentially enforce its open-border policies? It would be a consequential test of the balance of power and the authority of a U.S. president and a potential violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, which prevents the federal government from using the military to enforce domestic policies—which is arguably applicable here, though there may be different schools of thought on the matter.
A constitutional showdown seems inevitable, and Joe Biden seems to be intent on making it happen.
