Posted on 01/04/2003 12:43:36 AM PST by judicial meanz
A while back, I posted a thread on State Defense Forces and their role in Homeland Security. This is part two of the series.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/798815/posts
A lot of media attention has been devoted to the problem of Illegal immigration along our Northern and Southern Borders. Calls for Federal Troops to be stationed there, the National Guard, and even hiring more Border Patrol Agents.
The Congress and the President seem to ignore the problem while crime escalates in the border regions and our citizens are threatened with serious crimes, as well as the obvious national security concerns.
Private militias have formed to protect citizens, and the problem is still ignored.
My question is: Why is this just a federal only problem? The states have the same authority as the Federal Government to station troops on the borders to stem the flow of illegal aliens, and are neglecting this role just as badly as the Feds are. The only problem is the State Governors arent facing the same heat because people dont know the military laws of their state. ( who could blame them)
Every state has the ability to use its State Militia to patrol the border and interdict illegal aliens. In some cases, they have even more authority.
State Militias are authorized under 32USC 109 of the United States Code.They are usually called "State Defense Forces" because federal statutes refer to them as such. Every state has statutes (under the shared responsibility clause of the Constitution governing military defense) to allow it to use the state militia at the discretion of the governor to do the following:
1) Invasion, insurrection, or threats of either 2) when any combination of person(s) become so powerful as to obstruct the execution of laws 3) WHEN THE GOVERNOR DETERMINES A STATE AGENCY OR AGENCIES HAVING LAW ENFORCEMENT FUNCTIONS ARE IN NEED OF HELP IN PERFORMING THESE FUNCTIONS 4) Disasters 5) Emergencies of lesser magnitude ( as determined by the Governor-this is a catch all) 6) counter-drug duties
As anyone can see, a State Governor would have every justification in the world to call out the State Militia ( State Defense Forces) to secure our borders.
About 26 states have State Defense Forces. SO far, none have state troops detailed to curb illegal immigration or secure our borders from outside threats. They could keep Federal troops free from this duty so they could be used overseas in the impending war.
Why are we letting the states off the hook here? Because no one knows about these laws, or no one cares to know about them.
I suggest we start hounding our state governors and representatives to get on the ball as well as the Feds on this issue.
It would be very disappointing to see Rush jump on the amnesty bandwagon, most of the major talking heads like O'Reilly, Savage, and Hannity are against it. We need all the support we can get if we're ever going to stop the open borders insanity.
The jury's still out on how effective Bush has been as a war president, there's more planned yet on what he intends to do. I just think it's wrong to lump amnesty in with that as excuse to justify it, if that's what Rush or anyone is doing. They're two completely different issues.
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