Arizona Gov Overrules Biden, Declares State Of Emergency And Surges National Guard To Border: “If this administration isn’t going to do anything then we will”
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey just overruled Joe Biden and put the absent Kamala Harris on notice over the troubling situation at the border and declared a state of emergency. He also surged the National Guard to the border.
Ducey said he had to take this extraordinary action because the White House is missing in action. He sent 250 National Guard members to the border under the direction of Brig. Gen. Kerry Muehlenbeck to provide much-needed support to overwhelmed authorities.
“The situation in our border communities is just as bad, if not worse, than the coverage we’ve been seeing,” Ducey said. “It’s become evidently clear that Arizona needs the National Guard, and the White House is aware of that. Yet, to this day, there has been no action from this administration, and it doesn’t look like they are going to act any time soon. If this administration isn’t going to do anything, then we will.”
Yuma County Sheriff Leon Wilmot welcomed the decision saying it will provide much-needed support.
“The crisis at the border is serious and cannot be taken lightly,” he said.
“The Arizona National Guard will provide much-needed support to our officers and safety officials and will help ensure Yuma and other border communities are further protected from dangerous and illegal activity.
“By deploying National Guard assets, the Governor will allow me to deploy more first responders to mission critical tasks where we will work side by side with our federal partners to target, apprehend and prosecute transnational criminal organizations.”
From The New York Post:
The American Civil Liberties Union in Arizona said Ducey’s actions “do nothing more than further militarize our border communities and stoke unnecessary and unjustified fear.”
U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, a Democrat whose district includes Arizona’s southern border, said the deployment was purely political and will do nothing to resolve backlogs, improve care of unaccompanied minors, or help border communities.
The governor’s office said $25 million will initially be set aside to help local and state law enforcement officers such as state troopers.
Guard members could help with medical operations at detention centers, install and maintain border cameras, collect data from public safety cameras and analyze satellite imagery for current smuggling trends, the announcement said.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who also is a Republican, last month deployed about 500 members of his state’s National Guard to the border in Texas, which is seeing the largest share of current arrivals.
…Officials in small Arizona border towns including Yuma, Ajo and Gila Bend have called on the federal government to help them manage small groups of asylum seekers being suddenly released in their communities by CBP officials who say they don’t have capacity to hold them.
The towns don’t have the resources to transport the migrants to larger cities where they can get temporary shelter and logistical help reuniting with relatives elsewhere in the U.S.
Arizona Gov. @DougDucey declared a state of emergency and surged the National Guard to the United States-Mexico border as unprecedented numbers of migrants continue to enter the country.https://t.co/iOBSdadBzX
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) April 21, 2021