The Republican gubernatorial nominee for the state of Arizona renewed her promise Sunday to declare an invasion at the U.S. border between Mexico and Arizona if she’s elected.
Kari Lake told Major Garrett on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that she would do what President Joe Biden’s administration is failing to do to protect the citizens of her state.
Garrett, who went on to interview Lake’s opponent later in the show, asked Lake to explain to viewers the “legal and practical application” of the actions she promised to take.
“Well, of course, if you know the Constitution, you know that Article 4, Section 4 calls for the federal government to protect us from invasion,” Lake said, according to CBS’s transcript of the episode.
“And under Joe Biden’s lack of leadership, we just aren’t seeing that,” Lake said. “And we have an invasion at our border. The cartels, these narco terrorist groups have operational control. And they’re using Arizona to smuggle people, to traffic children, and to traffic the most dangerous drug we’ve ever seen, fentanyl.”
Lake, who became a Phoenix institution as a television anchor at KSAZ for over two decades before stepping down over liberal bias at the station, said the Constitution guaranteed the states the right to protect themselves militarily under certain circumstances.
“And so we’re going to invoke our Article 1, Section 10, basically, authority to take care of our own border and protect our own border. It’s right there in black and white in the Constitution. And we meet all three criteria. We have an invasion, our people are in imminent danger, and time is of the essence,” she said. “There’s no time for delay.”
Article 1, Section 10 of the Constitution places limits on the authority of the individual states, reserving certain privileges for the federal government. For example, states cannot enter treaties with foreign nations or print their own money.
The third sentence of the section reads, “No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.”
Is there an invasion of our southern border?
That last part is what Lake called out. States are not permitted under the Constitution to “engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.”
Lake’s position is that the surge of illegal immigration through the porous border with Mexico, 373 miles of which run along Arizona’s southern border, amounts to an invasion that represents an immediate need for military action. If Biden won’t take that action, Lake argues Arizona should, with assistance from other states.
“So we’re going to have other states offer help. I have already got a couple other governors who are willing to help out,” she said. “And I know that if you ask people in other states that are not border states, they deem this crisis on the border as one of the top issues facing our country with so many young people dying of fentanyl poisoning right now.”
Lake also said that Arizona would act unilaterally if it had to, but that she expected aid from other states.
“I believe we will get help,” she said. “I have already talked to some other governors. And they’re — they’re vowing to help us out wherever they can, because they realize that what comes into Arizona, fentanyl, people coming here illegally, children being trafficked, doesn’t stay in Arizona.
“It goes to all 50 states,” she said.
She also told Garrett that she’d fight in court any forthcoming challenges from the federal government over her actions if she had to.
You can watch the entire segment here:
Kari Lake Vows to Declare Southern Border Crisis an Invasion: ‘We’re Going to Invoke Our Article One’
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The security situation at the U.S. border is untenable. Even Lake’s opponent, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, said as much to Garrett during an interview in the same show.
“Biden does need to step up immigration and border security, absolutely. Arizona is bearing the brunt of — of illegal drug trafficking, gun trafficking and smuggling. And we do need more border security,” Hobbs said, though she disagreed — predictably — with Lake’s plan.
At least there’s something these two candidates can agree on: Joe Biden’s border policy is a failure.
Four weeks from tomorrow, we’ll find out what Arizona voters want their state government to do about it.
