Jon Roland of Austin, Texas runs a blog on the Constitution. This entry explains why the LP had better restore the Migration plank to what it said in 2016, when it brought us 4 million votes–before it was disfigured into repellent absurdity.
2019/02/16
Constitution authorizes declarations of emergency
The U.S. Constitution states:
[Congress shall] provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions; Art I Sec. 8.
Section. 2. The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States;
This last clause is key. The President has authority to call up the militia, and call-ups of militia are for emergencies, not to do the job of the regular military, which is provided for elsewhere. So to call up the militia is to declare an emergency.
So can the President declare an emergency without calling up the militia? All U.S. citizens, including government employees and contractors, are militia. Directing them to reallocate funds for defense is to act within that power. No special statutory authority is needed.
So are entries into the U.S. without consent an invasion? Yes. Any such trespass is an offense against the law of nations, which Congress has the power to define and punish. They have done that, although first-time simple entry is merely a “deportable offense”, a kind of misdemeanor. However, reentry after having been deported is a felony.
It does not need to be an armed force to be an invasion. A child chasing a butterfly across the border is an invader. It also doesn’t matter whether the invaders are, or can be expected to be, criminals. Peaceful people seeking work are also invaders, if they enter without consent.
So is the situation on the southern border an emergency? If it were only a few a day, no. But thousands flooding the border, faster than they can be managed, is an emergency.
Does it matter that the thousands are seeking asylum? No. U.S. law only recognizes political asylum, not economic asylum. Most of those thousands are economic refugees. If they are fleeing criminals or corrupt officials, then they have the duty to fight in their own countries, not in ours.
What is the President’s alternative? He could station troops along the border with orders to repel invaders with deadly force. He could erect gun turrets every few hundred yards. That would be more expensive than a wall. Do opponents of a wall really want invaders to be repelled by automatic weapons? Democrats would not get many votes from those.
Jon blogs at constitutionalism.blogspot.com
The Constitution once made Beer a felony, enforcement as which collapsed the economy. Get the complete story in Prohibition and The Crash on Amazon Kindle in two languages
Prohibition and The Crash, on Amazon Kindle
I also produce books and articles in Portuguese, using Brazilian historical sources at http://www.expatriotas.blogspot.com or amigra.us
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