Georgia joins Florida in sending troops to help Texas secure the border as California starts to feel the pressure now
Texas – On Tuesday, Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia announced his plans to send additional National Guard soldiers from his state to support Texas Governor Greg Abbott. Their goal is to manage illegal border crossings into the U.S. from Mexico. This decision comes as Abbott, a member of the Republican party like Kemp, challenges the immigration policies of President Joe Biden’s administration.
Kemp intends to deploy a small team of 15 to 20 National Guard members to establish a command center that will assist the Texas National Guard. This move was revealed after intense political debates in Georgia, where Kemp and other Republicans criticized President Biden for the border issues.
Kemp expressed frustration, stating that if the Biden administration does not address the border problems, states like Georgia will take action themselves.
Democrats criticized Kemp’s decision
However, Democrats criticized Kemp’s decision, calling it a political stunt aimed at gaining attention during an election year. They highlighted that previous attempts to create a border security plan were sabotaged by Donald Trump and other Republicans, including a proposal involving Republican Senator James Lankford from Oklahoma. Georgia’s Democratic leader, Harold Jones II, argued that Kemp’s actions were purely for political gain.
Kemp has previously sent troops to the border in 2019, and 29 members of the Georgia National Guard are still there, carrying out tasks such as aerial surveillance.
Kemp was among 13 Republican governors who supported Abbott in a recent event in Texas, demonstrating their collective opposition to the Biden administration’s handling of border security. Abbott has notably clashed with federal authorities by restricting access to Border Patrol agents in certain areas along the Texas-Mexico border.
On Tuesday, Governor Greg Gianforte of Montana declared that his state’s National Guard is preparing to work with Texas to find volunteers willing to assist with the situation in Texas. This announcement comes as legislators in other Republican-led states, including Oklahoma and Tennessee, have proposed resolutions to send additional National Guard troops to support Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s efforts.
Florida confirmed sending over 1,000 state troops to Texas
Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis also committed last month to dispatching hundreds more National Guard members to the Texas border. This adds to the over 1,000 National Guard members, state troopers, and other law enforcement personnel that Florida has already sent since the previous May, according to state officials.
“There are a lot of states that are stepping up, a lot of Republican governors that are stepping up to offer assistance, because they, like me, believe we just have to do this,” Kemp said. We have a president that will not act.”
Kemp continues to criticize the Biden admin despite past disputes with Trump
Despite Kemp’s known disagreements with former President Donald Trump, he has continued to support Republican initiatives while criticizing Biden’s policies. Kemp stressed the importance of reverting to Trump’s border control measures, asserting that Biden could manage border security without additional help from Congress.
Georgia’s Republican-majority legislature also took steps to formally denounce President Biden’s handling of border security, with both the Senate and House passing resolutions to this effect. The resolutions, which passed with significant Republican support, criticized the Biden administration and voiced support for Kemp’s border security efforts.
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The resolutions framed illegal border crossings in a highly negative light, labeling all individuals who enter illegally as criminals, including those seeking asylum, and suggesting many are involved in drug trafficking or pose a terrorist threat.
The passage of these resolutions by Georgia’s legislature was seen as a strategic move to highlight political differences, especially as all state lawmakers are up for election. This underscores the broader political context in which these actions are taking place, with Republican states actively rallying against the current federal administration’s policies on immigration and border security.
“We’re not going to pass a bill today that is going to move the needle in a large way,” Senate Majority Leader Steve Gooch, a Dahlonega Republican, said Monday. “What we are going to do today is take a position on this issue.”
California now struggles with immigration at the border
Recently, the pattern of migrants entering the U.S. without authorization has shifted, moving from Texas to mainly Arizona and California. Now, about 60% of all illegal border crossings are happening in these states, as shown by figures from the federal government reported by CBS News.
The total number of illegal crossings along the U.S.-Mexico border has decreased significantly after reaching a peak in December. In January, the Border Patrol caught 125,000 migrants trying to enter between official entry points, a big drop from the nearly 250,000 apprehensions in December, according to preliminary data.
The busiest areas for migrant crossings have become the Tucson sector in Arizona and the San Diego sector in California. Each day, over 1,000 migrants have been crossing into the U.S. through remote desert locations like Lukeville, Arizona, and Jacumba Hot Springs, California. They are finding ways through unfinished parts of the border wall or through breaches made by smugglers.
In contrast, migrant crossings along Texas’s border, which is the longest border any U.S. state shares with Mexico, have significantly decreased. This decline is particularly noticeable in the Del Rio sector, which was one of the most active areas for Border Patrol in December.
Texas sees huge drop in border crossings as we bolster our border security.
Our National Guard are adding more razor wire barriers and we are adding many more miles of the border wall.https://t.co/BcUz59brew
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) February 15, 2024
