PHOENIX — Arizona’s Republican attorney general says the governor can use force to repel an “invasion” of illegal immigration at the border with Mexico.
The formal opinion from Attorney General Mark Brnovich comes as he is locked in a tight five-way U.S. Senate primary campaign.
It embraces a novel theory pushed by two former Trump administration officials who say the U.S. Constitution allows states to use the National Guard or state police to forcibly send migrants to Mexico without regard to immigration laws.
Republican Gov. Doug Ducey's spokesman says Brnovich must have missed the governor's deployment of the National Guard to the border last April and other state efforts to boost border security.
