WASHINGTON—A nationwide network of attorneys called Attorneys United for a Secure America (AUSA), a project of the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI), has filed a brief in Arizona federal district court in a case that will test states’ rights to defend themselves from invasion by Mexican drug- and human-smuggling cartels. AUSA filed its brief on behalf of American Victims of Illegal Alien Crime (AVIAC).
In response to the floods of dangerous drugs and smuggled-in people pouring over Arizona’s border with Mexico, Governor Ducey of Arizona has placed shipping containers along that border to block the influx. Some of these shipping containers were placed on the Roosevelt Reservation, an area set aside by the federal government over a century ago. The federal government now claims that the shipping containers violate various federal regulations that it says apply to the area, and seeks their removal.
Governor Ducey responded by seeking a declaratory judgment from the Arizona district court that he is within his rights placing the containers there, and that the federal regulations do not apply to his effort to stem the invasions by the cartels.
In its brief, AUSA points out the irony that when President Theodore Roosevelt established the reservation in 1907, he did so to prevent smuggling from Mexico to the United States and to protect the environment from further damage that such illegal entries caused. The opposite purpose—that of facilitating illegal entries—now governs federal policy. AUSA also shows that the federal government does not have the authority over the area that it claims.
“What more evidence do you need that the Biden Administration couldn’t care less about protecting and defending the border?” said Don Rosenberg, president of AVIAC. “In early December, when asked if he would finally visit the border on his trip to Phoenix, Biden responded, ‘There are more important things going on.’ But what could be more important? Thousands of people are crossing the border illegally every day. Drugs that are killing over 100,000 Americans annually are flowing across the border. The cost to American citizens is in the hundreds of billions.”
“Biden has not just abdicated his duty to enforce the law,” said Dale L. Wilcox, executive director and general counsel of IRLI. “He has done so with the purpose of instigating and assisting the current, disastrous invasion of this country. Under these circumstances, the states have every right, directly from the Constitution, to defend themselves, and this constitutional authority overrides any contrary federal regulations there may be. We hope the court sees this crucial point of law, and grants the declaration Governor Ducey demands.”
The case is Ducey v. Moore, No. 22-cv-01814 (D. Ariz.).
