A Friday report revealed that 300 Tennessee National Guard troops are deployed to the U.S. southern border with Mexico, and that they’ll likely remain there until October.
“We’ve had National Guard on the border on and off for many months, if not years,” Gov. Bill Lee (R) told The Tennesseean. “There’s a break in service between them, but right now we have 300.”
The troops were first deployed last October.
The question came up after reports that South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) was using private funding from a Tennessee megadonor to send 50 of that state’s National Guard members to the border.
“We have no plans to change that. We’re happy to join South Dakota, or have South Dakota join us, in that,” Lee said, adding that the troops are performing a number of duties” in their deployment.
Citing Lee’s office, The Tennesseean reported that “members of the 269th Military Police Company are helping train law enforcement and are supplementing the police presence at the border, while engineers from the 913th Company are assisting with road construction and border wall projects. The 2nd Battalion of the 151st Aviation Regiment is helping Customs and Border Protection.”
There is a growing trend among Republican-led states to send National Guard troops or state law enforcement to the border to quell the record-setting surge of illegal alien crossings that coincided with the beginning of the Biden Administration.
Both Arizona and Texas deployed National Guard troops to the border in June, while their Republican governors called on other states to do the same. That call was answered by the state of Arkansas, which this week announced that 40 members of the National Guard will be deployed to the border.
Florida is sending 50 state police officers to assist local law enforcement along the border. Nebraska is also sending state police. So is Idaho. Some state law enforcement officers will travel to the border in Texas. Others will go to the border in Arizona.
The trend comes amid a lackluster federal response to the growing numbers of illegal aliens crossing the border.
Vice President Kamala Harris was appointed “border czar,” after which it took her nearly three months to even visit the border. While there, she blamed the Trump administration for the ongoing crisis.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a contributor at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter. Email tips to dabroscareports@gmail.com.