So much for constitutional conservatives

CBP violates federalism, civil rights, and state laws as Republicans cheer.

Credit: Paul Goyette, Wikicommons.

Earlier this week, I wrote a piece about the Border Patrol’s invasion of the state, citing their assault and abduction of an American citizen in Charlotte. I concluded the piece asking, “Where are the lawyers?” Well, one attorney replied.

John Runkle sent me a letter he had written in July addressed to Governor Josh Stein and Attorney General Jeff Jackson. In it, he reminded them that Republicans passed a law banning masks in public with few exceptions. The Customs and Border Patrol agents in the state are brazenly defying it.

John writes, “It is clear to me that ICE agents wear a mask solely to hide their identities and operate through threatening tactics. On its face our Mask Law prevents these actions.”

The Republicans who passed that law should be outraged. People from outside of North Carolina are flaunting their disregard for the state’s laws and the GOP’s deeply held conviction that masks should not be worn in public. Republicans were so committed to that belief that they overrode then-Governor Roy Cooper’s veto. Now, they need to either demand that the law be respected and enforced or admit that it was a political stunt to satisfy their base that believed COVID was a hoax.

In addition to the masks, who thought wearing military-style camo gear is a good idea? These guys aren’t in the mountains of Afghanistan or the jungles of Vietnam. They’re in the Home Depot parking lot. They are supposed to be carrying out police actions, not military ones. Remember, the saying is “Back the Blue.” These guys look like wannabe militia warriors. I want cops protecting us, not soldiers.

I’m having a really hard time understanding why a bunch of cosplaying federal agents from out-of-state are not being held to the same standards as citizens of North Carolina. If a sheriff’s deputy from, say, Orange County put on a mask, grabbed a U.S. citizen off the street with no warrant or probable cause, pushed them into a van, and drove off, the deputy would probably be fired, arrested, and sued. Why are border patrol agents exempt from following state laws and the U.S. Constitution? Where are all those people who used to post all over Facebook about being Constitutional conservatives?

I’m not a lawyer or a Constitutional scholar, but it sure looks like the people invading our communities are violating a lot of laws with no fear of being held accountable. I’m pretty sure that snatching somebody off the street without a warrant or probable cause and putting them into a van is kidnapping. Taking somebody’s wallet and throwing it out the window of the moving van, as the agents did to a U.S. citizen they kidnapped in Cary, is petty theft. If government agents did it, it’s a violation of the Fourth Amendment’s protection against illegal search and seizure. Also, since they are only grabbing people with complexions a bit darker than mine, it seems they are violating the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.

There are ways to enforce immigration laws, but what we’re seeing in North Carolina and other states is just wrong. The goal here is not just to intimidate immigrant communities, it’s to show all Americans that federal agents won’t be held accountable. They are rattling the foundations of our country, trampling the concept of federalism and the rule of law.

Republicans who blame a broken immigration system have blocked comprehensive immigration reform over and over again. Just last year, Donald Trump ordered Republicans in the Senate to kill a bill negotiated by Republican Senator James Lankford. Our own Senator, Thom Tillis, supported the bill until he didn’t.

In Trump’s first term, he killed a bipartisan Senate bill negotiated by Lindsey Graham and Dick Durbin. In 2012, the Senate passed another bipartisan measure drafted by the Gang of Eight, but it died in the GOP-controlled House. And in George W. Bush’s second term, Republicans killed a bill proposed by the Bush administration.

For twenty years, Republicans have been thwarting solutions to our dysfunctional immigration system because it’s too salient a political issue. Now, we have Donald Trump using it to assert autocratic control over states and cities. The intimidation and chaos is intentional, not a by-product of enforcement.

This is the America that MAGA wants—a heavy-handed federal government intimidating minorities and asserting its control over state and local authority. Republicans seem to believe its good politics, or at least won’t matter. They are wrong. They are just adding more uncertainty and angst to society at a time when people desperately want stability. Immigration and CBP raids might not be a driving issue in the 2026 election, but they are contributing to political environment that is collapsing for Republicans right now. We should not forget.