President Donald Trump has declared an invasion at the U.S. southern border and issued directives to suspend physical entry and repel the invasion.
Trump is the first president in modern history to declare an invasion at a U.S. border.
The proclamation signed late Monday comes after 55 Texas counties were the first and only ones to declare an invasion, changing the national conversation, The Center Square exclusively reported.
They did so after Arizona’s former attorney general was the only state attorney general to issue a formal opinion defining invasion, justifying Arizona’s right to self-defense under Article 1, Section 10, Clause 3 of the US Constitution.
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Trump’s nominee to lead the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, was the only governor in modern history to declare an invasion before a state legislature, The Center Square reported.
After millions of illegal border crossers poured into Texas and Republican governors supported its border security efforts, Gov. Greg Abbott said President Joe Biden had broken the federal government’s compact with the states, referring to the U.S. Constitution’s “Guarantee Clause.” The clause, Article IV, Section 4, states that the federal government “shall protect each state against invasion.” Instead, the Biden administration sued Texas attempting to block its efforts.
Republican governors maintained that states have a constitutional right to protect their borders. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said, “If the constitution was originally understood to mean that a state could not protect itself against an invasion, that the federal government could force a state to allow an invasion, the constitution would have never been ratified in the first place. Texas would have never joined the union when it did.”
Trump agrees.
In his Jan. 20, 2025, proclamation, “Guaranteeing the States Protection Against Invasion,” he states: “In joining the Union, the States agreed to surrender much of their sovereignty and join the Union in exchange for the Federal Government’s promise in Article IV, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution, to ‘protect each of [the States] against Invasion.’
“I have determined that the current state of the southern border reveals that the Federal Government has failed in fulfilling this obligation to the States and hereby declare that an invasion is ongoing at the southern border, which requires the Federal Government to take measures to fulfill its obligation to the States.”
The proclamation states that “An essential feature of any sovereign nation is the existence of territorial boundaries and the inherent authority to decide who and what may cross those boundaries.” The U.S. Supreme Court has “described this power as a ‘fundamental act of sovereignty,’ which ‘stems not alone from legislative power but is inherent in the executive power to control the foreign affairs of the nation.’”
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The proclamation cites examples of how the Biden administration violated the Immigration National Act (INA) allowing “unauthorized entry of innumerable illegal aliens into the United States” who weren’t vetted or screened for public health threats. Millions of illegal border crossers were transported into communities nationwide where they “potentially pose significant threats to health, safety, and national security.”
While the INA authorizes the president to suspend entry into the U.S. when determining “the entry of any aliens or of any class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States,” the proclamation says the president has the constitutional authority to do so to protect U.S. sovereignty, “particularly in times of emergency … such as when there is an ongoing invasion into the States.”
The president’s “inherent powers” to control the U.S. borders, including executive branch authority to control foreign affairs, includes “the ability to prevent the physical entry of aliens involved in an invasion into the United States, and to rapidly repatriate them to an alternative location. Only through such measures can the President guarantee the right of each State to be protected against invasion.”
The proclamation states: “By the power vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, I have determined that the current situation at the southern border qualifies as an invasion under Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution of the United States. Accordingly, I am issuing this Proclamation based on my express and inherent powers in Article II of the Constitution of the United States, and in faithful execution of the immigration laws passed by the Congress, and suspending the physical entry of aliens involved in an invasion into the United States across the southern border until I determine that the invasion has concluded.”
The order suspends entry into the U.S. as of Jan. 20, stating, “aliens engaged in the invasion across the southern border is detrimental to the interests of the United States.”
It points to federal law not being followed requiring health screenings, criminal and other background checks as reasons to remove “aliens invading the United States” and “restrict their access to provisions of the INA that would permit their continued presence in the United States.”
It states that Trump’s actions are authorized by Article II of the U.S. Constitution, including “control over foreign affairs, and to effectuate the guarantee of protection against invasion required by Article IV, Section 4.”
It directs the secretary of Homeland Security, secretary of State and attorney general “to take appropriate actions” to implement proclamation objectives, including “all appropriate action to repel, repatriate, or remove any alien engaged in the invasion across the southern border of the United States on or after the date of this order … until I issue a finding that the invasion at the southern border has ceased.”
Syndicated with permission from The Center Square.
