The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Kemp to send 15 to 20 troops to support Texas in fight over border security
Governor also sent National Guard force to Mexico border in 2019.
Gov. Brian Kemp is sending 15 to 20 National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to support Texas in its fight with President Joe Biden over immigration policy.
It’s part of an effort to put Democrats on the defensive after Republican leaders in Congress scuttled a border security deal at the urging of former President Donald Trump, who wants to keep illegal immigration as a campaign issue if he wins the GOP nomination to run against Biden.
Republicans in the General Assembly also joined in, passing resolutions in both the state House and Senate that condemned Biden’s immigration policies, endorsed construction of a border wall and backed Kemp’s effort to “allocate resources and assistance” to block illegal crossings.
Democrats called the Republican efforts posturing intended to score political points in an election year.
“What a shame that this is the priority of the majority party,” state Rep. Sam Park, D-Lawrenceville, one of his party’s leaders in the state House.
The federal government reported 302,000 encounters with unauthorized migrants in December, setting a record for a month and fueling new calls to take action at the border.
Polls show increasing concern among voters about illegal immigration.
Kemp long has called for stricter border controls, and he deployed a National Guard force to the border during Trump’s presidency in 2019. Officials say 29 Georgia troops still are stationed there, mostly assigned to aerial surveillance units.
Kemp recently traveled to the border with about a dozen other Republican governors to support Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in his stand against the Biden administration.
“Because of Joe Biden’s failure to address the crisis at the southern border, every state is now a border state,” Kemp said then.