Sinema, Kelly ask Biden to pay for troops

A day after Gov. Doug Ducey announced he was sending 250 National Guard troops to the border, senators Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., wrote to President Joe Biden asking the federal government to reimburse the state for the action.

The Arizona Democrats, who supported the Republican governor’s decision to dispatch more guards, also asked Biden to increase the number of Homeland Security personnel to help process migrants and secure the border.

Ducey issued a declaration of emergency, and his office said the state would provide up to $25 million in initial funding for the additional guards.

“There is a crisis at the southern border,” the senators’ letter said. “From recent conversations with local community leaders, law enforcement, and local Department of Homeland Security officials, it’s clear that their resources, staffing and capabilities are strained … This need for a secure and orderly process at the U.S. southern border should not fall on the state of Arizona or Arizona border communities.”

Over the past month, Sinema, Kelly, Ducey, and local elected and community leaders throughout the state have called on the Department of Homeland Security for additional resources to help local communities and non-profit groups feeling the brunt of an increase in migrants being apprehended by the Border Patrol.

Ducey, who is presiding over the GOP’s efforts to elect Republican governors across the nation in 2022, has directly blamed Biden for the migrant surge. He has cited the president’s reversal of immigration policies previously implemented by former President

Donald Trump.

Though the governor blames the Biden administration solely for the recent increase in Border Patrol apprehensions, experts say the increase is the result of a mix of factors, including a bottleneck of asylum seekers mostly from Central America. The migrants have grown increasingly frustrated after being stuck in Mexico for more than a year waiting for hearings in U.S. immigration courts under policies implemented by Trump.