Montana Republican Congressman Denny Rehberg lent his support for ceding more power and authority to the federal government's emerging police state by supporting HR 1505, the "National Security and Federal Lands Protection Act." This monstrous bill empowers the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to confiscate to itself tens of thousands of acres of land across the US northern border. This is for "national security" reasons, of course. Gag!
My friend, Dr. Ed Berry, has written a very astute summary and analysis of HR 1505 on his web site, PolyMontana.com. I am going to be borrowing heavily from his research in this column.
Dr. Berry rightly notes that the DHS is the giant head of no less than seven federal agencies: Transportation Security Administration (TSA), US Customs & Border Protection (CBP), US Citizenship & Immigration Services (CIS), US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), US Secret Service (SS), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and US Coast Guard (USCG).
Dr. Berry says pointedly, "FEMA is the one with the small cages to put you in if you do not behave. TSA is the one that gives you a useless body scan before you get on an airplane, bus, etc. DHS is the one adding its sensors to streetlights around America and the promoter of E-Verify and Real ID as a cradle-to-grave biometric tracking system for every American." And it is CBP that the DHS is using to seize property along the US northern border.
According to Denny Rehberg, the reasons the DHS needs to seize all this property are: 1) to stop the "turf war" between federal agencies, 2) Drug growers are hiding in our forests, 3) to catch criminals hiding in our forests, 4) to stop illegal aliens from coming in America.
Let's first acknowledge that the federal government has absolutely no natural right or constitutional jurisdiction to claim (much less seize) land and territory outside of the District of Columbia. In many of the western states of the US, for example, the vast majority of land in any given State is now regarded as "federal" land. Ask yourself, where is the constitutional authorization for this federal land grab? When did the various State legislatures vote to give these properties to the federal government? When did the various State governors sign the State laws giving these properties to the federal government? When did the citizens of the various states vote to give these properties to the federal government? The answer is, nowhere, and they didn't!
How is it, then, that we have elected representatives such as Denny Rehberg--people who took an oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States--who are either so ignorant of the Constitution that they took an oath to uphold, or who are so flippant and careless about that oath, that they so quickly and routinely trample, not only the federal Constitution, but the natural laws and principles of God, and the sovereign rights and authority of the several states?
Now, let's look at Rep. Rehberg's reasons why he supports HR 1505 one at a time:
*To stop the "turf war" between federal agencies
This is a very specious argument, to say the least! No federal agency has any claim to State land! The land doesn't belong to those miscreants inside the Beltway! It belongs to the people of the several states! Therefore, it is the responsibility of the State governor and county sheriff to determine who is and who is not allowed access to these lands. All this talk of a "turf war" between federal agencies is just a bunch of hooey!
On this point, we must note that Rep. Rehberg has introduced a "Sheriffs First" amendment to HR 1505. If approved, this amendment would recognize county sheriffs' law enforcement power over federal agencies and personnel. Of course, this is power sheriffs already have!
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