Arizona Attorney General’s Office Calls U.S.-Mexico Border Situation an Invasion

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich’s office says that the crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border qualifies as an “invasion” under the U.S. Constitution and that the state has a right to defend itself.

The ruling was made after state representative Jake Hoffman, R-Queens Creek, requested an opinion from the Attorney General’s office asking if the federal government was failing to uphold Article IV, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution (the invasion clause). He also wanted to know if it constituted a state being invaded under Article I, Section 10 of the U.S. Constitution (the state self-defense clause).

Hoffman made the request in October.

Brnovich wrote that Hoffman’s assertions were correct.

“The federal government’s failure to secure the border and protect Arizona from invasion is dangerous and unprecedented,” Brnovich’s ruling reads. “Thankfully, the Founders foresaw that states might need to protect themselves from invasion and made clear in the Constitution that states retain the sovereign power to defend themselves within their own territory. As discussed above, ‘actually invaded’ and ‘invasion’ in the State Self-Defense and Invasion Clauses is not limited to hostile foreign states but includes hostile non-state actors.

“The violence and lawlessness at the border caused by transnational cartels and gangs satisfies the definition of an ‘invasion’ under the U.S. Constitution, and Arizona, therefore, has the power to defend itself from this invasion under the Governor’s authority as Commander-in-Chief. An actual invasion permits the State to engage in defensive actions within its own territory at or near its border.”

Hoffman was happy with the ruling. He said that he wants the state’s Republican governor, Doug Ducey, to respond by taking further action to protect the border.

“I’m glad to see that Attorney General Brnovich today agreed with my assessment that the crisis occurring on our southern border constitutes an invasion and a total failure by the Biden administration to fulfill its constitutional obligation to protect the people of Arizona,” Hoffman said in a press release. “This groundbreaking legal opinion further reinforces what I, and my colleagues at the state Capitol, have been calling for, that Arizona, under Article I, Section 10 of the United States Constitution, has the authority to step up and protect itself from this invasion.

“The human smuggling, cartel drugs and violence, sex trafficking, and other illicit activity must end. I call on Governor Ducey to utilize the Article I, Section 10 powers afforded to Arizona by the U.S. Constitution to end the invasion and secure our border.”

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This article was published by The Center Square and is reproduced with permission.