(The Center Square) — Nearly two dozen states are deploying National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to help federal immigration officials deal with an unprecedented wave of undocumented migrants.
The deployments required by the US Department of Defense will require up to 2,500 National Guardsmen from Republican-controlled states such as Kentucky, South Carolina and Arkansas, as well as Democratic-controlled states such as Rhode Island and Illinois.
The troops have been asked by the Department of Defense to assist US Border Police in dealing with a surge in the illegal trafficking of people, weapons and drugs into the country. The troops will only work on support missions, a Defense Department spokesman said, and are forbidden under federal law from detaining undocumented migrants or others caught entering the United States illegally.
Other states sending troops include Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and the US Territory of Puerto Rico, DOD officials said.
Several other states — Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oregon, Utah and Washington — will support National Guard aviation for border operations, according to the department. The US Virgin Islands has also deployed National Guard troops for the mission, which is overseen by the US Northern Command.
For the Biden administration, the deployments are similar to those used by former President Donald Trump to deal with a surge in illegal immigration during his presidency.
In 2018, Trump dispatched National Guard troops from several states to assist U.S. Customs and Border Protection along the southern border. In a presidential memorandum, the Republican cited a “dramatic increase in illegal activity on the southern border” that threatens national security.
Unlike Trump, Biden appears to have made no statements about the deployments, leaving states to make announcements about National Guard troop commitments.
in the New HampshireRepublican Gov. Chris Sununu said more than 160 National Guard Soldiers from the 941st Military Police Battalion and 237th Military Police Company will be deployed for a year-long mission to conduct patrol and assist other U.S. troops in the field along a 250-mile stretch the southern border.
Sununu said the troops stationed at the border under similar orders in 2020 and 2021 would be needed to deal with “the ongoing humanitarian crisis along our southern border.”
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The U.S. border patrol has detained migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border more than 1.8 million times since October, breaking previous records, the agency said. Center Square, through its sources, reported illegal entry numbers in August almost 5 million since Biden began occupying the White House in January 2020.
About half of these immigrants have been expelled under Title 42, a federal health regulation that has been in effect since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hundreds of thousands more migrants have been allowed to seek asylum and other protections in the United States, according to immigration officials.
Republican governors in Texas and Arizona have criticized the Biden administration’s response to the surge.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott last year declared a state of emergency in response to increased illegal crossings at the Southwest border and has directed state and local police to step up arrests of unauthorized immigrants. Abbott has also deployed thousands of National Guard troops along the US-Mexico border.
Groups supporting tighter immigration restrictions say deploying National Guard troops will help overburdened federal agencies deal with surges in illegal immigration.
“It’s definitely going to help getting a foothold there because the border patrol is absolutely overwhelmed,” said Jessica Vaughn, director of policy studies at the Washington DC-based Center for Immigration Studies. “One of the biggest security issues is that federal officials are so distracted dealing with migrants that the border is completely unguarded.”
Vaughn said the Biden administration’s response to the “historic” flood of migrants has been “woefully inadequate” and that border states are bearing the brunt of illegal crossings.
“It is clear from the Biden administration’s response that it has no interest in stopping the flow of illegal immigrants,” she said. “They have many tools at their disposal that could stop the illegal crossings, but they didn’t do that.”
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