Jon Christian Ryter -- Solving the Border Problem

SOLVING THE BORDER PROBLEM

By Jon Christian Ryter

August 21, 2005

NewsWithViews.com

Earlier this week, two Democratic governors�Janet Napolitano of Arizona and Bill Richardson of New Mexico�declared states of emergency over what most Americans on both sides of the great political divide view as the single biggest and most dangerous problem facing America: violence from illegal immigrants, smugglers and drug runners along America's southern border.

Citing a dramatic proliferation of drug running and the smuggling of human contraband�both Hispanic and Muslim�the governors faulted both the American and Mexican governments for doing nothing to stop the crisis along the border. Neither governments, the governors noted, would free up the money needed to strengthen law enforcement efforts at the border.

Immigration & Customs Enforcement [ICE] authorities in Arizona, in fact, reduced the number of officers available for border patrol when Chris Simcox' and the Minuteman Project showed up in Arizona earlier this year. The word from the top was to make sure there was no noticeable increase in the arrest or detention of illegal immigrants because of the presence of the Minutemen.

Simcox's Minutemen track the illegals as they cross from Mexico into the United States, notifying the Border Patrol by cell phone where and when the crossing's occur, and where the illegals appear to be heading. Using about a dozen private aircraft when the Minuteman Project began, Minutemen pilots were able to spot aliens for miles�long before they ever reached the border�and alert their comrades on the ground where the crossings would take place. Several Minutemen reported that the US Border Patrol simply ignored their calls and never showed up to arrest or detain the illegals. In some instances, the Minutemen apprehended the illegals and detained them where they were stopped, forcing the Border Patrol to come and take them off their hands.

But what concerns Richardson and Napolitano most is the increase in deadly violence at the hot spot gateways into their States. In August, Police Chief Clare May of Columbus, New Mexico was fired upon as he checked out an abandoned car near the border. In March, four aliens in a Hummer tried to outrun US Border Patrol agents and died when their vehicle crashed. (Your usual Mexican illegal doesn't have a $60,000 Hummer at his disposal. A cocaine smuggler might have a Hummer. So might an Islamic terrorist on a seek and destroy mission. But your typical "I want a job or welfare and medical benefits" illegal alien isn't crossing in a Hummer.)

In declaring states of emergency Richardson and Napolitano committed $3.25 million for extra sheriff's deputies, better weapons and extra protection for officers working the hot spots. Both governors understand the battle they are waging is a war against organized crime. The smuggling, and many times enslavement, of human contraband is done by organized crime. The cocaine smugglers are not only members of organized crime, they are usually protected by heavily armed soldiers of fortune who are former�or existing�Mexican soldiers or police officers.

The $3.5 million budget is the proverbial drop in the bucket in the border war that is breaking out from Arizona to California. And, it's a war that will prove to be a very expensive effort in futility if those States can't muster 10,000 to 20,000 cops or National Guardsmen to patrol�and seal�their borders with Mexico. Fortunately, there is something the governors can do to capture the immediate attention of the President of the United States. And, even though Bush doesn't want to, the governors have it within their power to force him to act with enough manpower to staunch the flow of illegals crossing the border from Mexico into the southern United States.

It will require the border governors�Janet Napolitano [D-AZ], Arnold Schwarzenegger [R-CA], Bill Richardson [D-NM] and Rick Perry [R-TX�� taking the same two steps to create the "incentive" for President George W. Bush to act in the best interest of the States rather than the best interests of the US Treasury and the Federal Reserve�who needs new taxpayers so badly they are willing to make citizens out of illegal immigrants in the mistaken belief that dishonest people will honestly pay their fair share of the American tax load to a government they do not recognize as their own..

Under the Articles of Confederation "...[e]very State shall always keep a well-regulated and disciplined militia, sufficiently armed and accoutered, and shall provide, and constantly have ready for use, in public stores, a due number of field pieces and tents, and a proper quantity of arms, ammunition, and camp equipment." The task of fielding an army belonged to the States, and the governor of each State was the commander-in-chief of that military force. You see, the people of the various States simply didn't trust their central government with an army stronger than the Militias of the States.

That way, in the event the States were obligated to forcibly subdue its own central government, it would always have a superior force with which to do it. That, by the way, was the very specific purpose of the 2nd Amendment. The 2nd Amendment was not structured into the framework of liberty to protect the right of the American sportsman to hunt quail or for the American family to protect itself from burglars in the night. The Founding Fathers simply did not trust the central government it was creating. They feared that the day might come when the "caretakers of freedom" would attempt to usurp liberty and create a federalist democracy in which the bureaucrats in the nation's capital would use their legislative "eraser" to blur the distinctions between a republic and a democracy, and create a federalist democracy where a Republic had once existed.

While the President is the commander-in-chief of the army and navy, he does not possess the constitutional authority to send American troops who are members of the National Guard into harm's way. That's a power delegated solely to the US Congress by the Constitution under Article I, Section 8, which says: "The Congress shall have power to...raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years." It goes on to say that Congress [alone] shall have the power to "...[call] forth the Militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions." Presidents since Harry S. Truman have sent US troops into harm's way, and then asked Congress for permission. Under a strict constructionist view, presidents can commit only regular army troops to three specific actions without the consent of Congress�to enforce a duly legislated but unpopular law; to put down an insurrection within the United States; and to repel an invasion across our national borders. (Lincoln believed the secession of the Southern States was an "insurrection," and thus, claimed the Constitutional authority to use regular army troops to restore the Union�then he drafted 50,000 conscriptees.)

Neither Congress nor the White House was given the authority to use the Militias of the States to invade another country. Of course, the precedent to do so was codified in 1898 when, for the first time, American military forces attacked an "enemy" who did not border the United States.

The four States directly affected by the illegal immigrant problem need to take the following actions: [1] declare the existence of a critical State emergency (Arizona and New Mexico have already taken this step); and [2] issue a Resolution advising the Congress and the Executive Branch that the borders of the United States have been breached and the nation has been invaded and, according to Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, the Congress of the United States is obligated to send the Militias of those States to protect and seal the borders of those several States from alien invasion.

Furthermore, the governors would then resolve that since the Militias of those States are currently being utilized in a manner contrary to the specific delegated use of the Militias of the several States, the governors of those States order the Congress�and the President of the United States�to immediately return the Militias of Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas to the authority of the Governors of those States forthwith so that they�the State militias�can perform the constitutional task of protecting the border of the United States from an invasion that threatens the national security of those States and the United States of America.

In 1798-99 Thomas Jefferson and James Madison authored what became known, respectively, as the Virginia and Kentucky Resolves. The dual resolutions were used by the States to abrogate the constitutionally enacted Sedition Act. of 1798 (which made it a crime to speak out against the policies of the president, John Adams). In the Virginia Resolution and the Kentucky Resolution, the Founding Fathers established the right of the States to nullify any action taken by the federal government with which the States disagree. That right still exists today.

Subscribe to the NewsWithViews Daily News Alerts!

Enter Your E-Mail Address:

While the federal government has assumed for itself a superior role in the process of governance over the States, it was created subservient to the States�and it is time the States exerted its authority over the federal bureaucracy and demanded that the Congress return the State Militias (the National Guard) of Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas to the more important task of securing our national borders from invasion since, according to Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, that is a task assigned to the Militia by the Constitution.