As a strong believer in the 10th Amendment, I support a state’s right to control its own destiny and to implement policies that serve its citizens best. I believe many citizens agree with this philosophical approach, yet the foundation of this principle currently finds itself in a fragile state at the hands of our federal government.
Time and time again, the Obama Administration has trampled states rights with the policies and rhetoric coming from Washington. First it was the stimulus bill, which was more about pushing liberal policies and less about a sound fiscal plan to aid struggling states. Next, America was subjected to the highly unpopular federal healthcare mandates. One of the most recent examples, the Arizona immigration plan, is now the latest in a long chain of federal mandates on individual states and also a troubling demonstration of exactly how far the Obama Administration is willing to go to trample states rights.
With the Administration’s lawsuit against the enforcement of the Arizona immigration plan, we now know that the Obama agenda has no limits in pushing its will upon individual states. The Justice Department’s willingness to spend taxpayer resources on this lawsuit, requiring Arizona to expend equal resources in defending their plan, demonstrates that no cost to the taxpayer is too high when it comes to our President superseding states rights.
Regardless of how you feel specifically toward the Arizona immigration plan, I think we can all agree that individual state legislatures have the responsibility to protect their citizens, provide for their security, and to enact policies that fundamentally serve the will of their constituency.
While we may agree that legislatures exist to serve the needs of their state, regretfully, President Obama does not. Compounding on this problem is that our federal government simply refuses to secure our international border and enforce our immigration laws. This means that it is no longer enough for our federal government to stand by idle.
Now our President has decided to take this injustice one step further by preventing individual states from taking these matters of citizen protection into their own hands. In doing so, the President flies in the face of 60% of Americans who support Arizona’s law.
We stand at a critical turning point in our nation’s history. Those of us who advocate for states rights certainly have reason to feel disappointed, but that is why we must keep pushing back and sending the clear message to Washington that we as sovereign states of this union retain the right to further our prosperity through any means we deem necessary.
Like Arizona, Texas has very unique immigration challenges that state lawmakers must address. In fact, Texas has unique challenges in several areas of public policy that I believe are best addressed by those elected from our state to govern our state. That is why I am, and will remain, a tireless advocate for individual states’ rights. Even though we may have suffered recent setbacks today, I can’t urge citizens enough to continue pushing back on the era of big government in order to help lead the state of Texas and our nation to a brighter tomorrow.
As always, it is an honor to serve you in the Texas House of Representatives. Please feel free to contact me at my district office at 972.724.8477 or by e-mail at [email protected] if I can ever be of service.
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