On Wednesday, Kansas Republican Senator Roger Marshall stood on the floor of the Senate and introduced a resolution that would recognize that “the unprecedented crisis at our southern border constitutes an invasion of the United States of America,” adding that it is “the constitutional right of state governments to repel the dangerous ongoing invasion across the southern border.”
“The federal government has failed,” Marshall stated bluntly, “intentionally or unintentionally, to uphold its obligations to protect the states from invasion under Article 4, Section 4, of the United States Constitution.”
Article 4, Section 4 states: “The United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion …”
Marshall then ripped President Biden: “During his campaign to become president, Joe Biden made it clear to the entire world that if he became president, America would be open; not open for business, but that our southern border would be open, wide-open, for anyone and everyone to violate our nation’s immigration laws and to take advantage of America’s generosity.”
“Yes, it would be wide open for drug smugglers, convicted murderers, domestic abusers, and sex offenders,” he charged. “Open for terror suspects.”
“In 2019, Joe Biden called for ‘all those people seeking asylum to immediately surge to the border,’” Marshall recalled. “He pledged free health care for illegal immigrants and pledged support for sanctuary cities. One of his first actions as president was sending proposed legislation to Congress that would provide a path to citizenship for ten to twelve illegal aliens residing in the United States. On his first day in office, he halted construction of President Trump’s border wall and halted the Remain in Mexico program.”
“This open border, opened by Joe Biden, has resulted in an unprecedented, unrelenting massive wave of illegal aliens entering our country,” he accused.
Marshall said that last year Border Patrol made more than 1.7 million arrests of illegal immigrants along the southern border — the highest level ever recorded. He charged that now that Biden is prepared to end the Title 42 program, the vast majority of illegal immigrants will be released into the interior of the U.S.
He spoke of the fentanyl crisis, then segued to the Border Patrol saying Biden had blocked them from implementing immigration law.
“It’s long past time for states to protect their interests because Joe Biden has made it clear the federal government will not,” Marshall declared. “President Biden’s dereliction of duty and failure to take care that the laws be faithfully executed at our southern border has directly put the citizens of all 50 states in danger and has resulted in loss of life.”
He concluded:
Let me be clear: the violent activity and smuggling of drugs, humans, guns, and other illicit goods carried out by drug cartels and transnational criminal organizations meet the definitions of actually invaded, under Clause Three of Section 10 of Article 1 of the United States Constitution. An invasion, under Article 4, Section 4, of the United States Constitution, and governors of all 50 states possess the authority and power, as Commander-in-Chief of their respective states, to repel the invasion described in paragraph 2.
Today, I introduced a resolution to recognize the unprecedented crisis at our southern border as an invasion and aid Governors in their efforts to fend off this dangerous situation. pic.twitter.com/qZFjkMZX0L
— Dr. Roger Marshall (@RogerMarshallMD) August 3, 2022