(Boise, Idaho) — Today Bring Our Troops Home, a national organization of veterans of the Global War on Terror, addressed the outcries in Texas regarding the situation on the U.S.-Mexico border. For weeks the organization has been mobilizing legislators in various states to request their Attorney Generals to issue formal opinions on whether or not the crisis of illegal immigration constitutes an “invasion” as defined by the United States Constitution.
“Our organization has always committed itself to the idea that when the federal government violates or neglects the law, it is the legal responsibility and civic duty of state governments to intercede and correct the situation,” said Sgt. Dan McKnight, Chairman of Bring Our Troops Home.
Dan McKnight is a thirteen year veteran of the U.S. military, with service in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves, U.S. Army, and Army National Guard, including an eighteen month combat tour in Afghanistan from 2005 to 2007. He founded Bring Our Troops Home in 2019.
“Under the Constitution of the United States, the National Guard has three responsibilities: enforce the law, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions. Those duties do not include nation-building in endless overseas military occupations, or fighting illegal wars unilaterally declared by the president,” McKnight explained. “There is a crisis on our southern border. Not only a humanitarian crisis, but a constitutional and possibly military one as well. But the Biden administration would rather have U.S. National Guard troops in Europe training Ukrainians for a proxy war with Russia than have them on our own border, protecting the territorial sovereignty of the United States.”
On Tuesday July 5 local officials in multiple counties along the Texas border, including Kinney, Goliad, Terrell, and Uvalde, described the mass of illegal immigration as an “invasion” and demanded that Governor Greg Abbott use the same language. They were joined by several members of Congress, including Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX).
Yesterday, July 7, in response to this pressure, Governor Abbott invoked Article IV, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution and empowered state law enforcement to arrest illegal migrants and deliver them to ports of entry. However the governor did not describe their inpouring as an invasion, and Attorney General Ken Paxton has not addressed the legal dispute.
“Governor Abbott and Attorney General Paxton should not skirt their duty to the people of Texas, and should certainly not sidestep the law of the United States. Either they believe the crisis on our border—where over one hundred thousand people are illegally crossing every month—represents an invasion with all the legal implications that carries, or they don’t. They should look voters in the eyes and tell them which it is,” said McKnight.
On February 7, 2022, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich issued an opinion concluding that the mass, unregulated movement of people across the U.S.-Mexico border does place the United States under “invasion.” Brnovich concluded:
“The issues in this Opinion relate to border security. The federal government’s failure to secure the border and protect Arizona from invasion is dangerous and unprecedented. Thankfully, the Founders foresaw that States might need to protect themselves from invasion and made clear in the Constitution that States retain the sovereign power to defend themselves within their own territory. As discussed above, “actually invaded” and “invasion” in the State Self Defense and Invasion Clauses is not limited to hostile foreign states but includes hostile nonstate actors. The violence and lawlessness at the border caused by transnational cartels and gangs satisfies the definition of an “invasion” under the U.S. Constitution, and Arizona therefore has the power to defend itself from this invasion under the Governor’s authority as Commander-in-Chief.”
“Up to this point, Attorney General Ken Paxton has been unresponsive to requests, both from private citizens and elected Texas legislators, that he issue a formal opinion regarding the question of invasion. His silent refusal to even recognize the contention is an open betrayal to his constituents,” concluded McKnight.
