For most Americans, stopping illegal immigration has been a priority because they’ve recognized it as an escalating problem that threatens personal and national interests. The numbers justify that concern. Over the past four years, the nation has witnessed its largest surge ever of illegal immigration thanks to the Biden-Harris administration’s open-border policies. At present, at least 16.8 million illegal aliens reside in the United States, while 647,000 of them with criminal charges or convictions roam freely.
Now however, what had been a priority has been elevated to an official national mandate given Donald Trump’s landslide victory, one fueled in significant measure by support for his immigration positions.
Except there’s one problem — public officials and special interests in blue states aren’t exactly on board with that. They rationalize that stopping illegal immigration isn’t a mandate in their state by virtue of the fact that President-elect Trump didn’t win their state, and they’ve been quick to push back.
Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey declared that “every tool in the toolbox has got to be used to protect our citizens, to protect our residents and protect our states and to hold the line on democracy and the rule of law as a basic principle.” When asked if her state’s law enforcement would assist federal authorities with deportations, Healey said, “No. Absolutely not.” The American Civil Liberties Union Executive Director of Maine, Molly Curren Rowles, warned that her tax-exempt is “prepared to act to resist the dangers posed by Trump’s return to the presidency…just like in 2016, we will get to work immediately to resist repression and totalitarianism.” California Governor Gavin Newsom said his state is “ready to fight,” while Illinois Governor JB Pritzker promised that if “you come for my people, you come through me.”
Legally, there is no justification for their resistance. States do have some measure of autonomy under our nation’s structure of federalism but that should not imply that states refuse to collaboratively work with federal officials to enforce laws. Blue states also assert their autonomy by citing the Tenth Amendment: “Powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
Yet when it comes to immigration — and its compendium of laws enacted by Congress — these same blue states conveniently ignore another essential part of the Constitution. Article VI, Clause 2 (The Supremacy Clause) stipulates that “the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof…shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby.” Thus, states that harbor illegal aliens by way of sanctuary policies and refuse to cooperate with federal immigration officials attempting to enforce “the Laws of the United States” violate our nation’s legal foundation.
Nor is there any justification for blue-state resistance, regardless of how they voted, given that illegal aliens, criminals, and terrorists migrate across state lines. One state’s sanctuary policies adversely affect adjacent states.
Costs spill across state lines too, so it’s unfair for states to shout, “Our sanctuary policies are our own business.” In fact it isn’t exclusively their business; federal expenditures on illegal immigration — which citizens of all states pay for — are $66 billion annually. Taxpayers in Alabama unfairly wind up partially subsidizing the federal cost of 3.5 million illegal aliens in California, Tennesseans partially subsidizing the $5 billion migrant mess in New York City, etc.
In effect, there has been an urgent legal, fiscal, and public safety mandate to curtail illegal immigration long before this election even occurred. None of this seems to matter much for militant blue states like Massachusetts, Illinois, California, Maine and others. Things will change soon enough, though. Trump’s new “border czar” Tom Homan warns, “If they’re not willing to help, then get the hell out of the way because Immigration and Customs Enforcement ICE is going to do their job…, don’t get in our way, because there will be consequences.”
Perhaps with both carrot and stick incentives — legal and financial — blue states can be persuaded to recognize our immigration mess for what it is: An urgent mandate in all 50 states necessitating collaborative efforts at all levels of government to solve a shared problem, enforce the laws of our land, and enhance the well-being of its citizens.
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