GOP govs demand action on crisis at southern border
COLUMBUS – Ohio Gov. Mike Dewine and 25 fellow GOP governors want to meet with President Joe Biden at the White House “to bring an end to the national security crisis created by eight months of unenforced borders.”
The governors wrote in a letter to the president that states have borne the brunt of failed border policies. In July, Dewine sent 14 Ohio State Highway Patrol troopers to Texas and promised to send another 185 members of the Ohio National Guard to the southern border as early as October. Those troopers have since returned.
“Not only has the federal government created a crisis, it has left our states to deal with challenges that only the federal government has a duty to solve,” they wrote. “Our immigration system may be complicated and complex, but the solution to ending the border crisis is simple and straightforward.”
The GOP governors requested a meeting within 15 days.
Since Biden took office, the number of encounters on the southern border has surged. U.S. Border Patrol took 208,887 people into custody during August – a similar number to July.
The letter comes as the Biden administration blocked the border at Del Rio, Texas, and began sending planes of Haitians back to the country’. Last week, a federal judge ordered the administration to stop expelling migrant families with children to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in holding facilities.
Dewine was often hesitant to criticize former President Donald Trump, a fellow Republican, instead saying he wanted to focus on governing Ohio. Dewine has offered a few critiques of Biden, including calling the president’s vaccine and testing requirements for businesses “a mistake.”
USA TODAY contributed.
Jessie Balmert is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Akron Beacon Journal, Cincinnati Enquirer, Columbus Dispatch and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.