The Insurrection Act: Officials In Blue States and Cities Are "Running with Scissors" Expecting Nothing Bad Will Happen From Opposing DHS/ICE.
The factual preconditions for invoking the Insurrection Act have already been met -- only President Trump's forbearance in asserting his lawful authority has prevented it from happening.
It began mostly as an exercise of “virtue signaling” when officials in Blue states and cities adopted so-called “sanctuary” state/city policies during the first Trump Administration. It was a “pledge” to not have state and local resources, including law enforcement, be involved in the efforts by the new Trump Administration to enforce immigration laws in the aftermath of eight years of Obama Administration policies of lax border enforcement and efforts to “regularize” the status of millions of illegal aliens in the United States. Obama’s creation of “DACA” — deferred deportation under the program called “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivials — was emblematic of his way of using Executive branch control of immigration enforcement to adopt overt policies of non-enforcement.
When the Trump Administration in 2017 signaled an intent to end these policies and begin to remove illegal aliens rather than make a “deal” to create a “path to citizenship” for them, the reaction on the Democrat party’s progressive left was to “resist” — just like “resistance” was the watchword for pretty much every change in federal policy sought to be implemented by Pres. Trump in his first term.
But what Trump 2.0 is facing is dramatically different than simple “non-cooperation” policies that were put in place by Democrat Governors and Mayors in 2017. Releasing individuals from state custody rather than turn them over to ICE for deportation is fundamentally different from directing state and local law enforcements to not respond to unlawful activity by the populace in response to efforts by federal officers to enforce federal law.
Trump 2.0 is facing the consequences of an invasion by millions of illegal aliens from all around the world who the Biden Administration simply opened the gates for. This is an unprecedented factual situation — but at the same time it is being met with a never-before-seen of OFFICIAL conduct by state and local officials to either interfere with enforcement, or adopt policies that assist the populace in interfering with enforcement of federal law.
The fundamental principle that the Trump Administration MUST drive home is simple: the residents of Portland, Chicago, New York, California, Oregon, Washington, etc., DO NOT have “veto” power over the federal government’s enforcement of federal law.
The Congress of the United States has passed laws regarding immigration procedures, and how illegal aliens found in the United States are to be removed. The Congress has given near plenary power to the Executive branch in devising the policies and processes by which those responsibilities are to be performed.
When state and local governments interfere, you end up here — 10 U.S.C. Sec. 252:
Use of militia and armed forces to enforce Federal authority.
Whenever the President considers that unlawful obstructions, combinations, or assemblages, or rebellion against the authority of the United States, make it impracticable to enforce the laws of the United States in any State by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, he may call into Federal service such of the militia of any State, and use such of the armed forces, as he considers necessary to enforce those laws or to suppress the rebellion.
