Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced last Tuesday that Arkansas would become the tenth state to send National Guard troops to the southern border to help with the unprecedented surge in illegal immigration and equally unprecedented lack of action from the federal government.
Gov. Hutchinson announced a 90-day deployment of approximately 40 members of the Arkansas National Guard to the southern border after an impassioned appeal for help from Texas Gov. Abbott and Arizona Gov. Ducey, who the Biden Administration has abandoned in the throes of the worst border crisis in two decades.
Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge stated in a tweet:
While Joe Biden & Kamala Harris have failed to secure the border, Arkansas National Guard troops are stepping up to fill the gap so we can stop the flow of deadly drugs & human trafficking from cartels.
Additionally, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced on Friday that his state would also send much-needed law enforcement support to the southern border, approving the deployment of Ohio National Guard troops to counteract the record number of aliens crossing the border.
Gov. DeWine said in a press release that he had authorized 185 members of the Ohio Army National Guard to assist USCBP at the border. This is in addition to 14 highway patrol troopers and supervisors recently authorized to assist at the border, and over a hundred Ohio National Guard troops already at the border after the National Emergency Concerning the Southern Border of the United States, whom DeWine says “currently remain on active duty.”
Arkansas and Ohio now join Florida, Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa, Georgia, South Carolina, Oklahoma and Idaho in responding to the request for assistance from the Governors of Texas and Arizona.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the first Gov. to respond to the request, stated on the issue:
America’s border security crisis impacts every state and every American. The Biden Administration ended policies implemented by President Trump that were curbing illegal immigration, securing our border, and keeping Americans safe.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds echoed the same sentiment, stating:
My first responsibility is to the health and safety of Iowans and the humanitarian crisis at our nation’s southern border is affecting all 50 states. The rise in drugs, human trafficking, and violent crime has become unsustainable.
Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts said in a statement:
The disastrous policies of the Biden-Harris Administration created an immigration crisis on the border. While the federal government has fallen short in its response, Nebraska is happy to step up to provide assistance
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem explained the need for the national guard:
The border is a national security crisis that requires the kind of sustained response only the National Guard can provide.
The Epoch Times reports that Govs. Abbott and Ducey’s letter asserted that under the Emergency Management Assistance Compact, any officers that states send to Texas or Arizona would be given “the same power … duties, rights, and privileges as are afforded forces of the state in which they are performing emergency services,” which will “include the power to arrest migrants who illegally cross the border into our territory.”
For more on Arkansas’s decision to send help to the border, please click here.
For more on Ohio’s decision to send help to the border, please click here.
