Trump-backed Kari Lake would declare invasion in effort to close Arizona border

Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake has vowed to declare an invasion to secure the state’s border with Mexico should she get elected in November — a move that would generate big legal battles with immigrant advocates and the Biden administration. "This is the biggest invasion we've ever had on our homeland since the founding of this country," Lake, a former television reporter, told Fox News last week. A majority of people agree that the United States is “experiencing an invasion at the southern border.” Lake’s promise to “declare an invasion,” though, is not mere rhetoric, but a legal move available to states through the Constitution akin to invoking war powers. "We're going to be invoking our inherent powers under Article 1, Section 10 of the U.S. Constitution to defend ourselves from the invasion in lieu of the federal government reneging on their guarantees to protect us under the guarantee clause, Article 4, Section 4,” Lake added. "So we will issue a declaration of invasion and we will take on those powers that are granted to us in the U.S. Constitution and we will take care of the problem at our border.” DACA 2.0: BIDEN RELEASES 250,000 UNACCOMPANIED MIGRANT CHILDREN INTO THE U.S. Former Trump administration officials Ken Cuccinelli and Russ Vought, now at the conservative Center for Renewing America nonprofit organization, have been pushing Republican Govs. Greg Abbott of Texas and Doug Ducey of Arizona since last October, urging them to declare an “invasion” at the Mexico border to justify more aggressive measures to curb illegal immigration. More than 2 million people have been encountered between both states since President Joe Biden took office, far eclipsing previous records. Neither governor has invoked the invasion clause, but Cuccinelli and Vought's recommendation was finally backed by Lake, whom former President Donald Trump has endorsed. Declaring an invasion would call on the states' self-defense clause outlined in Article 1, Section 10 of the Constitution, as well as the invasion clause in Article 4, Section 4. If the federal government fails to protect a state, the governor may take action to protect itself — in this case, arresting and removing any person who illegally crosses the border. “Despite the federal government’s refusal to enforce U.S. immigration laws, the Biden Administration would be quick to sue state(s) if state actors returned illegal aliens back to the Mexican side of the border,” Lora Ries, director at Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center, wrote in an email Monday. “Courts will reject [Lake's] skewed view of the Constitution that migrants walking across the border are an invasion when the provision she cites is clearly about war and armed military conflict," Gregory Z. Chen, senior director of government relations for the American Immigration Lawyers Association, wrote in an email. Lake would be having law enforcement and the military detain, arrest, and turn away illegal migrants, sending them back to Mexico. Abbott has said he opposes declaring an invasion because it would put law enforcement in legal jeopardy at the federal level. “Arizona voters should not be fooled by Kari Lake’s empty promise that she will declare an ‘invasion’ and deport people back across the border when it is well established that a state does not even have those powers which are clearly reserved for the federal government,” Chen said. Ries suggested that the Biden administration would follow the example of the Obama administration when Arizona enacted a 2010 state law to prevent illegal immigration into the state and the Obama administration opposed it. If Lake declared an invasion, “the Biden administration would claim, as the Obama Administration did against Arizona, that only the federal government can perform immigration functions, not the states,” Ries wrote. ”This is a novel issue, with legal scholars coming down on both sides of the issue. However, such a declaration would almost certainly force the Biden administration’s hand in court, which could ultimately end up at the Supreme Court and a re-visiting of the infamous Arizona v. U.S. case.” CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER Chen billed Lake's proposal as a "deceptive campaign stunt" when a "serious" candidate would propose "operationally effective solutions in coordination with the federal government to manage the increased numbers of people at the border in a safe, fair and efficient manner." The latest gubernatorial polling results released Monday. News show Democratic candidate Katie Hobbs with a 3 percentage point advantage over Lake. For more information visit us at http://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/index.html.