Thursday, January 23, 2025
3.0°F

Our border invasion has solution – in Constitution

FRANK MIELE/The Daily Inter Lake | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 10 years, 5 months AGO
by FRANK MIELE/The Daily Inter Lake
| August 3, 2014 12:46 AM

Gov. Rick Perry of Texas recently ordered 1,000 Texas National Guard troops to the state’s border with Mexico to assist the Border Patrol in responding to the growing crisis of illegal entry.

That led California Gov. Jerry Brown to criticize Perry while on a recent trip to Mexico. Here’s Brown’s take on the failure of the United States to defend its borders: 

“This is a human problem, and it has been the religious call of all religions to welcome the stranger, and it’s in that spirit that I believe the clergy can call the United States, Mexico and all the players to perhaps a higher response than might otherwise happen.”

In other words, the United States should open its doors to anyone who comes knocking because we are good Christians and have an obligation to assist those less well off than ourselves.

This ignores two obvious points. 

First of all, no nation does more for the poor and destitute of this earth than the United States. We are first to respond to any disaster, emergency, war or other crisis. Our expenditures on behalf of the downtrodden are massive compared to what anyone else does.

Second, no matter how much we do on behalf of the poor people of the world, we cannot ever conquer poverty. We can’t do it by foreign aid, and we certainly can’t do it by opening our borders and accepting anyone into our country that wishes to be here. That is a formula for wider poverty, as our own country devolves into Third World status, not a prescription for a brighter future. 

According to the book “Portfolios of the Poor,” nearly half of the world’s population lives on $2 a day. Do you really think the United States can somehow alleviate poverty among those 3 billion people? It is ridiculous to suggest such a thing.

But what we can do, what we MUST do, is remain faithful to the principles that made our country strong in the first place — liberty, rule of law, and a government that protects its citizens from threats both foreign and domestic.

Today, we have a government that protects us from neither, which is why Gov. Perry’s deployment of the National Guard on the Texas-Mexico border strikes a chord with so many Americans.

The only problem is that Perry’s deployment order is symbolic, not serious, and it won’t do any good until it becomes serious. It is unlikely that Perry is any more likely than any other politician to put his own personal interest second, and the needs of the nation first, but the fact of the matter is we don’t need 1,000 troops on the border, we need 10,000, maybe more. And we don’t need them to play nanny like the Border Patrol; we need them to DEFEND our borders from an invasion.

And it turns out Gov. Perry has the authority to do just that, as I was reminded recently by a letter to the editor. The letter, which is printed on today’s Opinion page, in particular cited Article 1, Section 10 of the U.S. Constituion, which states that, “No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.”

It is those final 14 words that authorize Gov. Perry to take whatever military action he deems necessary to defend Texas. If you think the state of Texas, or the state of Arizona, or the state of New Mexico has not been invaded, then I invite you to go there for yourself and ask those thousands of people pouring across the border to turn back and apply for legal admission. If they apologize for losing their way and then head back into Mexico to look for the nearest U.S. consulate, you were right all along. Those folks were not invaders. But if they ignore you, or worse yet, shoot you for trying to impede their access to the land of opportunity, then please apologize to me and the millions of other Americans who want to protect our way of life. I know an invasion when I see one.

So, since the United States government, and its commander in chief, refuse to act to prevent the invasion of our southern border, it is not just legal, it is mandatory that the governors of the several states take action on behalf of their people. 

Perry should not back down; he should work with other governors to form just such a compact as the Constitution envisioned whereby a multitude of states could do what is necessary to protect themselves. 

To do any less would be a violation of their oath of office.


Frank Miele is managing editor of the Daily Inter Lake in Kalispell, Montana.

MORE COLUMNS STORIES

States have role in border defense
Daily Inter-Lake | Updated 10 years, 5 months ago
Gianforte affirms Texas’ border actions against feds
Daily Inter-Lake | Updated 11 months, 2 weeks ago
Language, borders and culture: A meditation
Daily Inter-Lake | Updated 9 years, 8 months ago

ARTICLES BY FRANK MIELE/THE DAILY INTER LAKE

June 28, 2014 7 p.m.

Republicans briefly flirt with success

I should have known it was too good to be true.

August 3, 2014 12:46 a.m.

Our border invasion has solution – in Constitution

Gov. Rick Perry of Texas recently ordered 1,000 Texas National Guard troops to the state’s border with Mexico to assist the Border Patrol in responding to the growing crisis of illegal entry.

July 5, 2014 7 p.m.

Forging the chains of liberty - and forgetting them

When I was growing up in Stony Point, N.Y., I was surrounded by reminders of the birth of our nation, and the sacrifices that were made to wrest our liberty from the yoke of a tyrant.