States deploy about 2,500 National Guard troops to U.S.-Mexico border

(The Center Square) – Nearly two dozen states are sending National Guard troops to the U.S.Mexico border to help federal immigration officials grapple with an unprecedented surge of undocumented migrants.

The deployments, which were requested by the U.S. Department of Defense, call for up to 2,500 National Guard members from Republican-led states like Kentucky, South Carolina and Arkansas, as well as Democratic-led states such as Rhode Island and Illinois.

The troops were requested by DOD to assist U.S. Border Patrol in dealing with a surge of illegal trafficking of people, weapons and drugs into the country. The troops will work only in support missions, a Defense Department spokesman said, and are prohibited under federal law from detaining undocumented migrants or others caught crossing into the United States illegally.

Other states sending troops include Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, DOD officials said.

Several other states – Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oregon, Utah and Washington – will be providing National Guard aviation support for border operations, according to the department. The U.S. Virgin Islands has also committed National Guard troops to the mission, which is being overseen by the U.S. Northern Command.

For the Biden administration, the deployments are similar to those used by former President Donald Trump to deal with a surge of illegal immgration during his presidency.

In 2018, Trump deployed National Guard troops from several states to support U.S. Customs and Border Protection along the southern border. In a presidential memorandum, the Republican cited a “drastic surge of illegal activity on the southern border” threatening national security.

Unlike Trump, Biden doesn’t appear to have issued any statements on the deployments, leaving it up to states to make announcements about commitments of National Guard troops.

In New Hampshire, Republican Gov. Chris Sununu said more than 160 National Guard soldiers from the 941st Military Police Battalion and 237th Military Police Company will be dispatched for a oneyear mission to conduct surveillance and support other U.S. troops on the ground along a 250-mile section of the southern border.

Sununu said the troops – which were deployed to the border in 2020 and 2021 under similar orders – are needed to deal with “the ongoing humanitarian crisis along our southern border.”

The U.S. Border Patrol has apprehended migrants at the U.S.Mexico border more than 1.8 million times since October, breaking previous records, according to the agency. The Center Square, through its sources, reported in August the number of illegal entries is nearly 5 million since Biden began to occupy the White House in January 2020.

Roughly half of those immigrants were expelled under Title 42, a federal public health order that has been in place 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.