On Monday, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) announced she was sending National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to facilitate keep the border secure.
The announcement, which was posted on Twitter, comes two days before former President Trump is scheduled to visit the border with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and other GOP House members.
Tomorrow morning, I am formally announcing the deployment of up to 50 National Guard troops to Texas to facilitate secure our border. The Biden administration has failed to keep America sheltered. We shouldn’t be putting our communities at risk by sending the police to fix the Biden border crisis.
— Governor Kristi Noem (@govkristinoem) June 28, 2021
Noem, who took office in 2019, joins a long list of Republican lawmakers sending troops from their state to ease the immigration crisis at the southern border. Since President Biden took office, the number of migrants arriving at our border has increased dramatically. Last month, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) encountered more than 180,000 people – an augment of 675 per cent compared to May last year, when it stood at around 22,000. These statistics do not include “escapes”, which number around 1,000 per day.
Abbott thanked Noem for joining his efforts to keep their community sheltered.
Thank you for sending troops to facilitate secure the border, Governor @KristiNoem.
Together we will keep our communities sheltered and facilitate end this crisis. https://t.co/WY0HSxjxlJ
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) June 29, 2021
Abbott, a longtime Trump supporter, has been at the forefront of the border security movement since President Biden took office. He has announced the completion of construction of the Texas-Mexico border wall, sent National Guard troops to the border, and most recently invited Trump to visit the border with him on Wednesday.
“In response to the federal government’s neglect of all the people along the border and the people who are struggling with the consequences of the spread of drugs like fentanyl, Texas is stepping up and doing more than any other state has ever done to respond to the challenges along the border,” Abbott said at a news conference this month.
In April, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) announced he was also sending 250 National Guard troops to the border. Like Abbott, he has been a vocal critic of the Biden administration’s handling of the immigration crisis.
“It has become obvious that Arizona needs the National Guard, and the White House recognizes that,” Ducey said in his speech. announcement“But to date, the administration has not taken any action, and it does not appear that they intend to take action in the near future. If this administration is not going to do anything, then we will.”
Arizona, like Texas, is right next to Mexico. However, there is no “natural” border like the Rio Grande that separates the two. The huge 572-mile stretch of the border has no borders with Mexico but is not adjacent to the metropolitan area. Crossing into the United States from the Sonoran Desert is extremely perilous, yet many migrants are willing to make the trek.
This month, Abbott and Ducey sent a joint letter to the governors of the other 48 states asking for facilitate from law enforcement in the South. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) was the first to respond, while Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts (R) and Idaho Gov. Brad Little (R) also responded to the request.
The number of illegal border crossings this fiscal year is already the highest since 2006. This is a crisis and our law enforcement professionals need facilitate.
In answer, @GovAbbott and sent a letter to all U.S. governors requesting support for law enforcement along our state borders. 1/ photo.twitter.com/U0dywS6XBz
— Doug Ducey (@dougducey) June 10, 2021
“We have problems in Florida that are not organic to Florida that we have had to deal with for many years, but especially in the last six months, because of the failure of the Biden administration to secure our southern border and actually do anything constructive about it, what’s happening on the southern border,” DeSantis said during a news conference this month. “We are grateful for the willingness of these people to step up and help solve a problem that is obviously causing a lot of problems in some of our friendly states.”
Vice President Kamala Harris, unofficially known as the “border czar,” joined a trip to Mexico and Guatemala earlier this month to address the “root causes” of the border crisis. However, she faced intense criticism from the media and lawmakers for not visiting the southern border during her visit.
Presumably, Trump’s border trip prompted Harris to finally visit the border. The vice president visited El Paso as a stop on a weekend trip to Los Angeles.
“Kamala Harris, your vice president, went to the border yesterday for one simple reason: because I announced I was going,” Trump told a crowd at his rally in Wellington, Ohio, over the weekend. “If I hadn’t done that, I don’t know if she would have ever left.”
