This Speakout was submitted by Bob Burns, professor emeritus of political science at South Dakota State University.

Gov. Kristi Noem’s Speakout column in the Aug. 19 edition of the Brookings Register offered praise to members of the South Dakota National Guard who have assisted in constructing a fence and wall along the Mexico-US border in Texas and further offered sharp criticism of the Biden Administration’s immigration policy.

I too extend words of praise to those members of the Guard who responded in a wholly professional manner to Noem’s fifth questionable directive assigning the Guard to the southern border which she has described as a war zone.

I refer to the directive as questionable for a variety of reasons. First, $4,300,000 in state emergency and disaster funds have been allocated to support the Guard deployment because there was not a federal activation order to defray expenses and Texas has not agreed to reimburse South Dakota. Ironically, South Dakota now seeks federal emergency disaster funding in response to the flooding in southeastern South Dakota earlier this summer.

Second, there is a significant but unanswered question regarding the legal authority of a state to construct any physical barrier along the international boundaries that separate the U.S. from both Mexico and Canada.

The U.S. Constitution does make clear that the conduct of foreign affairs including international travel and commerce is the exclusive power of our national government.

Third, Trump’s wall and earlier walls have not proven particularly effective in stemming the flow of migrants desiring to enter the U.S. as asylum seekers find other avenues of more dangerous entry or quickly learn to penetrate the obstacle.

Some have suggested that Noem’s directives were issued more to court favor with former President Trump and the MAGA crowd than to truly secure our border.

Noem’s current criticism of President Biden’s immigration policy may have lost some punch since current monthly southern border detentions are down 50% from 2023 levels and not unlike levels during the Trump Administration.

This is due to a number of reasons, including an executive order issued by President Biden that incorporates several provisions of the bipartisan immigration legislation favored by Biden that Trump directed GOP law makers to kill because fixing the border crisis would deny Trump his main presidential campaign issue. Biden’s executive order lacks appropriations for enforcement and, like earlier Trump orders, it may be invalidated by a federal court. In the meantime, the order appears to be effective. It would seem Trump and Noem have lost the high ground on the immigration issue.