Texas can make a border wall happen. Many worry that courts will block President Donald Trump from building a border wall with funds reprogrammed from other projects under a declaration of an emergency. However, Texas is in the more conservative Fifth Circuit, not the Ninth.
As an attorney who worked for Judicial Watch and more recently for Larry Klayman at Freedom Watch, this topic has prompted legal research by the author.
The border wall should be built exclusively in Texas at first, postponing California, Arizona, and New Mexico until after the Texas border is secure. That will keep lawsuits in the Fifth Circuit and out of the Ninth. Texas can make this happen.
Texas governor Greg Abbott should formally request that the president issue a declaration of an emergency. Abbott should declare a state-level emergency. Abbott should ask Texas officials to compile incidents of violence, gang activity, drug-smuggling, human-smuggling, sex-trafficking, etc. to document grounds for an emergency. Abbott should make demand invoking Article 4, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution that the federal government "shall" protect Texas against "invasion" by armed gangs and criminals. The Texas Legislature should pass a resolution invoking Article 4, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution that the federal government "shall" protect Texas against "domestic violence" spread from Mexico across the border, including armed gangs and criminals, drug-smuggling, human-smuggling, sex slavery, etc.
Decision-makers need to stop viewing this topic as one single step or as mutually exclusive with other actions. Trump should declare a national emergency while still negotiating with Congress for appropriations. It is not "either-or." He can reprogram funds in a later, separate step.Section 4, Article 4 of the U.S. Constitution commands the U.S. government – unconditionally – as follows (emphasis added):
"The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence."
Congress passed the Secure Fence Act of 2006, mandating the following:
Not later than 18 months after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall take all actions the Secretary determines necessary and appropriate to achieve and maintain operational control over the entire international land and maritime borders of the United States, to include the following[:] ... (2) physical infrastructure enhancements to prevent unlawful entry by aliens[.]
The law further mandates that "operational control" means "the prevention of all unlawful entries into the United States, including entries by terrorists, other unlawful aliens, instruments of terrorism, narcotics, and other contraband."
Notice "entire" border. Notice "prevention of all unlawful entries." The act requires "all" of the border to be 100% secure, not just 700 miles, as people say. The secretary of DHS has to decide what type of barrier is best in various sections. But the result must – with no discretion – prevent "all" unauthorized entry.
"The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence."
Congress passed the Secure Fence Act of 2006, mandating the following:
Not later than 18 months after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall take all actions the Secretary determines necessary and appropriate to achieve and maintain operational control over the entire international land and maritime borders of the United States, to include the following[:] ... (2) physical infrastructure enhancements to prevent unlawful entry by aliens[.]
The law further mandates that "operational control" means "the prevention of all unlawful entries into the United States, including entries by terrorists, other unlawful aliens, instruments of terrorism, narcotics, and other contraband."
Notice "entire" border. Notice "prevention of all unlawful entries." The act requires "all" of the border to be 100% secure, not just 700 miles, as people say. The secretary of DHS has to decide what type of barrier is best in various sections. But the result must – with no discretion – prevent "all" unauthorized entry.
