(Texas Scorecard) – Attorney General Ken Paxton is defending President Donald Trump’s constitutional powers to secure the southern border.
In an amicus brief filed Tuesday, Paxton argued that the federal government is constitutionally required to protect the states from invasion and that the power to control who enters sovereign territory and who does not is itself a defining characteristic of “sovereignty.”
“For four years the failed Biden Administration flagrantly refused to do what President Trump has accomplished in mere months, but now radical left-wing groups and rogue activist judges are standing in the way of national security, public safety, and the Constitution itself,” said Paxton.
“The federal government must be allowed to do its duty, end the invasion, and save our beloved country,” he continued.
This comes as radical leftwing groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies have sued the Trump administration for allowing the border crisis to persist.
ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project deputy director Lee Gelernt described Trump’s efforts to halt the invasion at the border as an “unprecedented power grab.” He also suggested that the executive branch was acting illegally.
However, Paxton’s brief explains that stopping the federal government from resolving the border crisis forces the administration to violate its constitutional duties.
“Instead, this Court should allow the federal government to uphold its obligation under U.S. Const. art. IV, § 4 to secure the border, repel this ongoing invasion, and protect the states from further harm,” the brief reads. “Anything less undermines the Constitution.”