Jonathan Turley 'skeptical' Texas counties can declare border invasion

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Turley on Texas officials calling for border invasion declaration: This dog won’t hunt

Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley on Texas counties declaring migrant invasion.

Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley told "America’s Newsroom" on Tuesday he is skeptical that Texas officials calling for a border invasion declaration would hold up in court.

"I'm afraid I'm skeptical. As they say in Texas, this dog won't hunt. They're relying on the guarantee clause of Article Four, Section Four, and that deals with an invasion, which is generally interpreted and long interpreted to mean an actual foreign invasion in the form of an army, an organized force," said the constitutional scholar. 

"I don't think a court would seriously consider expanding the term invasion to cover this."

Multiple Texas counties on Tuesday will declare that the migrant crisis at the southern border is an "invasion," Fox News has learned, a move that could lead to similar declarations across the state.

ARIZONA AG BRNOVICH ISSUES LEGAL OPINION DECLARING BORDER CRISIS ‘INVASION’ UNDER CONSTITUTION

Coverage of the border crisis picked up as Title 42 was set to expire. (John Moore/Getty Images)

Kinney County Judge Tully Shahan is expected to announce the move at a news conference Tuesday afternoon, along with a number of other officials from other counties who will join him.

Kinney County Attorney Brent Smith told Fox News Digital that he believes approximately 12 to15 counties could end up having declared an invasion by the end of the month.

With migrant numbers hitting historic levels, and with more than 239,000 migrant encounters in May alone, there has been considerable talk in conservative circles about the merits of declaring the crisis an "invasion" -- which could open up a number of potential legal avenues for states.

Former Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russ Vought and former acting deputy DHS Secretary Ken Cuccinelli, both now at the Center for Renewing America have urged governors to make the declarations and use war powers to order Arizona’s police or National Guard to remove illegal immigrants to Mexico themselves.

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Turley said that all Americans should be alarmed over the number of migrants crossing the border illegally.

"This is really breathtaking, the degree to which we're seeing an influx," Turley said, emphasizing that the solution is more of a political matter. 

"It's a matter of competency, not the Constitution. It goes to the Biden administration's failure to take a more concerted effort to try to stem the flow. But I don't believe that a federal court would lend much credence to the expansion of the guarantee clause [of the Constitution]."

Fox News' Adam Shaw contributed to this report.