Our current border crisis is proof that Washington is broken and the two party system is corrupted by special interests. As with so much else, Texas cannot look to the federal government for solutions to our insecure border and broken immigration system.

We must act as the sovereign state that we are in these, as in other, matters.

A Secure Border

While running for Texas governor in 2010, Kathie sent Governor Perry a letter urging him to stop begging the federal government to secure our border.  She told him: do your duty as Commander-in-Chief under our Texas Constitution, and use our Texas State Guard to secure the border. The Texas governor can secure the border. Only Kathie Glass will.

Under our Texas Constitution, the Texas governor is the commander in chief of the Texas military, which consists of the State Guard, National Guard, and Air National Guard.  As governor, Kathie would secure the border using the Texas State Guard, which is under the total control of the governor and can never be nationalized.

The State Guard should work with local and state law enforcement to assist property owners in the vicinity of the border by enforcing Texas law against trespass and other crimes, especially acts of violence by cartels and gangs. Texas needs a revitalized State Guard not only to secure our border, but to provide disaster relief, and do anything else a state militia must be ready to do in times like these.

We don’t need Arizona-style police stops, walls, fences, drones, e-verify, or constitution-free zones from an overly zealous Border Patrol.  We can achieve our goals for a secure border with a flexible, economical, and responsive boots-on-the-ground approach.

Nothing except a lack of will prevents Texas from defending the private property rights of residents along the border by enforcing Texas state law.  Texans are already paying for border security – we’re just not getting it. If you have ever tried to analyze the budget, you know just how difficult it is to ferret out exactly what we pay for things.  But it is clear that Texas budget includes over $200 million and possibly as much as $330 million for “border security,” depending on what you mean by that term.

Kathie calls what our current Texas governor — and his hand-picked successor — plan to do on the border “Operation PhotoOp.”  We need law enforcement to enforce Texas law, not a shuttle service to federal resettlement facilities.

Had Kathie been elected Texas governor in 2010, this crisis would not be happening now. If Kathie is not elected governor in 2018, the chaos will continue.

A Made-for-Texas Guest Worker Program

Some people improperly lump immigration and border security together, but they are separate albeit related issues.  Another common misunderstanding is that they are exclusively federal matters. Our Constitution grants the federal government jurisdiction over naturalization, but not over immigration.  In times past, Texas has implemented its own guest worker program, and we should do so again.

Texas should craft a made-for-Texas guest worker program that we implement through offices at each major border crossing.  The following elements of this program are designed to identify peaceful, productive, and non-threatening persons who will be an asset to Texas.

★ Confirmation of employment in Texas.

★ Background check.

★ After a driving test, driver’s license issued and insurance obtained.

★ An agreement that no taxpayer-funded services will be sought or accepted, that notice will be given if employment status or other relevant facts change, and an acknowledgment that acceptance in this program is not linked to citizenship.

Once our guest worker program takes hold, the situation on the border will improve and remaining problems more easily solved. Those who continue to cross the border in other than the 26 land ports of entry, can be presumed to be engaged in criminal activity and treated accordingly.