Border Crossings

Dealing with trespassers.

Atlanta, GA

January 26, 2024

Yesterday, looking out the front window, our dog began to bark. He usually does when a stranger approaches. But no solicitors, mailmen, or Mormons were anywhere in sight. 

Yet something else was. Narrowing my gaze, I spotted a French bulldog strolling the lawn. Evidently, our neighbor’s pup had gotten loose. Before he could wander away and get lost in the woods, I grabbed a leash and ran outside. 

I found him sniffing a tree beside the house. He seemed shocked when he saw me, and timid as I approached. Crouching down, he patiently waited while I found his collar.

He recoiled a bit as I attached the leash. Once I did, he started to relax. I walked him toward our neighbor’s house, imagining their relief that I’d rescued their “Frenchie”.

But as we approached, the little bulldog began to resist. He tugged ardently in the other direction. This was odd. Did he not desire to go home? Had he wanted to flee? 

I started to wonder if I’d foiled his plans. Was this a role reversal, where I was a human tracker who’d sniffed a fugitive canine? What happened to make him run away, and be so reluctant to return? Maybe he’d be happier if I didn’t bring him back?

But after a few minutes, he relented…and came with me to the door. When it opened, my neighbor looked down at the dog, then beamed at me.

“Oh my God!”, she rejoiced, kneeling down to pet the pooch.

Basking in glory, I was more than willing to let her proceed with her praise. So she did:

“Congratulations! You got a dog just like ours. When did you get him?”

Huh?

My brow rose and smile faded. “This isn’t your dog?”, I asked.

“No. Mine is inside. He’s not yours?”

Uninvited Visitors

I was starting to think he might be, whether I liked it or not. But what to do with this impetuous intruder?

It’s a question many Americans are starting to ask. Especially as millions of “migrants” stream over the border, and spill (or are poured) across the land. And the only leash being applied is the one the U.S. government places on anyone trying to stem the flow.

A few months ago, as the disaster in the Ukraine continued and the one in Gaza began, President Biden condescendingly assured us that “we” could fight multiple wars at one time. After all, he asserted, “we’re the United States of America.”

Not for long.

As if to reinforce Biden’s point, his own government has added America to the list of foes it’s willing to fight. Earlier this week, the Supreme Court provided air cover for the ongoing assault.

In a 5-4 decision, it declared that the state of Texas can’t defend itself. Not only from a relentless invasion, but from a U.S. government insisting the onslaught should continue. 

The Court and Administration aren’t merely derelict in their duty to defend the border. They’re actively undermining any entity that tries to do so. 

The Lone Star State is being attacked from north and south. While “migrants” flood from Mexico, US agents descend from DC…to ensure the alien hordes have an unimpeded path!

With the U.S. government turning the Rio Grande into a nomadic deluge, the state of Texas installed razor wire to stem the tide. The Biden Administration said the barrier should come down, as it prevents “border personnel from doing their jobs.”

Exactly.

Because “their jobs” are apparently to entice as many trespassers as possible. And, like stray dogs thru a suburban subdivision, the interlopers are going everywhere.

Overwhelmed “Sanctuaries”

“Sanctuary cities” swarm with illegals, forcing sanctimonious mayors to admit their errors without explicitly saying they were wrong. They lament having insufficient resources to handle the influx, yet blame border-state governors for taking them up on their self-righteous offers.

Immigrants infest the city of Denver, where hospitals, hotels, and shelters burst at the seams. In Chicago, at least 200 illegals recently covered concourses at O’Hare Airport. According to footage, mattresses were placed in sectioned-off areas to temporarily house the “migrants”.

In New York, hotels are converted to makeshift shelters. And, as the catastrophic Covid response proved, kids are the last priority of “public officials.” So, naturally, the city’s high schools become barracks for uninvited vagrants. 

A few weeks ago, James Madison High (how does it still have that name?) in New York was converted to a vagabond ghetto. While it was, its students were consigned to the “virtual schooling” that worked so well during the “pandemic” panic. When the kids returned, they were given cleaning materials to help sanitize classrooms that were converted into encampments for two thousand “asylum seekers.”

The last three years, more than six million illegal immigrants have overrun the US, a rate that’s rapidly increased the last few months. The invaders inundating America aren’t only, or even mostly, from Mexico. Or even Latin America. They’re from everywhere (with the notable exception of Europe). 

Many are from the Middle East, Africa, and other places the U.S. has repeatedly agitated with bombs, invasions, and occupations that induce ire and inspire revenge. It’s only a matter of time till one of the infiltrators decides to get it.

A Weasel Gets it Right

The governor of Texas is a renowned weasel. He’s known to run in front of a parade to pretend he’s leading it. But after the Supreme Court decision, he issued a welcome announcement denouncing the Administration for not fulfilling its duties, and for inhibiting his state from doing its job. From his letter:

“…visionaries who wrote the U.S. Constitution foresaw that States should not be left to the mercy of a lawless president who does nothing to stop external threats like cartels smuggling millions of illegal immigrants across the border. That is why the Framers included both Article IV, § 4, which promises that the federal government “shall protect each [State] against invasion,” and Article I, § 10, Clause 3, which acknowledges “the States’ sovereign interest in protecting their borders.” Arizona v. United States, 567 U.S. 387, 419 (2012) (Scalia, J., dissenting).

The failure of the Biden Administration to fulfill the duties imposed by Article IV, § 4 has triggered Article I, § 10, Clause 3, which reserves to this State the right of self-defense. For these reasons, I have already declared an invasion under Article I, § 10, Clause 3 to invoke Texas’s constitutional authority to defend and protect itself. That authority is the supreme law of the land and supersedes any federal statutes to the contrary. The Texas National Guard, the Texas Department of Public Safety, and other Texas personnel are acting on that authority, as well as state law, to secure the Texas border.”

Good.

When the US government violates the Constitution, resistance is the rightful remedy. The Supreme Court can offer opinions. It’s an arbiter of what the Constitution says. But it’s not the only one, nor the final one. Nor necessarily the most important one.

The states are the parties to the constitutional compact. The US government is their creation, not the other way around. As such, each state has the right (and responsibility) to interpret the Constitution, and to ignore unlawful edicts that subvert its intent.

The states established the central government to be their servant. It has few powers, and they’re well defined. But defending borders is one of them.

Yet in a transparently political effort to distort demographics and erode the culture, the Administration throws rose petals at the feet of millions of “migrants” who may be hostile to their hosts.

This isn’t the way immigration should work. Immigrants are guests. And guests are welcome only if private property owners invite them. Otherwise, they’re intruders. Not that they don’t do so all the time, but governments can’t rightfully authorize anyone to enter property other people own.

Governments shouldn’t “own” property, or decide who should. Governments shouldn’t exist at all. But since they do, they’re responsible to taxpayers who fund them. 

Just as they wouldn’t (or shouldn’t) allow drug-addled derelicts in a public school, governments shouldn’t permit illegal aliens on territory taxpayers pay for. From the perspective of American citizens, letting everyone enter is more oppressive than letting no one in. It’d be as if I were compelled to keep every lost dog that wandered onto my land.

If anything, the dog I’d found had more of a claim than these immigrants do. At least he had an ID! After my neighbor said the dog wasn’t hers, I looked again at his collar. On the tag was a faded phone number I initially hadn’t seen.

After I dialed it, a relieved voice picked up. It was a woman driving nearby, seeking what I had. Within a few minutes of me giving directions, she pulled up beside me, and retrieved her dog. Everyone was happy. 

I felt good about how I’d handled the vagabond. After seeing him where he shouldn’t be, I checked his credentials, and sent him back where he belongs. 

That shouldn’t be so hard to do.

JD