The Arizona state legislature, in an attempt to bypass Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs, is working to place a border-enforcement bill on the ballot. That bill has now passed a hurdle in the Arizona State Senate.

An Arizona push to work around Gov. Katie Hobbs and put tougher immigration laws in front of the voters to decide cleared a major hurdle in the state Senate.

"The governor has openly said the border is not secure. She’s said the federal government’s failing us, the Biden administration’s failing us, but unfortunately, it’s just words," Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen told Fox News Digital. "She hasn’t proposed anything, she hasn’t given us anything for the border."

Petersen’s comments come after an Arizona Senate committee approved the "Secure Border Act," or HCR 2060, on Wednesday, coming one step closer to putting the question in front of voters this November.

The proposal is along the lines of a recent Texas law, passed by the Lone Star State in response to the Biden administration's inaction along the border.

The bill, which is modeled after Texas’ controversial SB 4, would make it a crime to illegally cross the border. Like the Texas law, which is critically at the center of an ongoing court battle, the bill would give local law enforcement the ability to enforce immigration laws.

"This is truly a border security bill," said Petersen, the top Republican in the Arizona Senate. "It allows law enforcement to, if they see somebody crossing the border illegally, they’re able to arrest them, detain them and put them through the judicial process."

Should this bill make it to the ballot and become law, it will almost certainly be contested by the Biden administration, who have consistently insisted that border enforcement is the sole responsibility of the federal government while simultaneously leaving the southern border wide open.

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Governor Hobbs has already vetoed a similar bill, making the ballot initiative necessary.

By putting the question in front of the voters, Arizona Republicans could effectively bypass the state’s Democratic governor, who vetoed a similar bill in March that made it a state crime to illegally cross the border.

"This bill does not secure our border. On the contrary, it will be harmful for businesses and communities in our state and a burden for law enforcement personnel," Hobbs said at the time. "I know there’s frustration about the federal government’s failure to secure our border, but this bill is not the solution."

This bill may not be the solution, but it's easy to understand the frustration border state legislatures are feeling, given the federal government's inaction on this issue, and the Constitution does appear to allow for the states to take action to prevent invasion. Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution states:

The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence.

While that clause assigns the protection of the states from invasion to the federal government, Article I, Section 10, Clause 3 also allows for states to take action in the event of invasion:

No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.

The words "unless actually invaded" would sure seem to apply to what is going on at our southern border. The border states are reacting to years of refusal by the federal government to take on their constitutional duty to control the borders, so the states are, under Article 1, Section 10, authorizing themselves to do so. There will almost certainly be legal challenges by the federal government; illegal immigration and enforcement of the southern border will be a contentious issue among voters for this fall's election. And any judicial decisions between now and then on laws like this may well factor into the November elections as well.

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