Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD) announced the deployment of the South Dakota National Guard to the “war zone” along the southern border, which will take place later this spring.
The deployment of Noem’s state National Guard will consist of sending 60 soldiers to the southern border over the course of three months. Noem stated she was sending the soldiers to the border not “to facilitate an invasion” but for them “to stand up and stop it.”
“The border is a warzone, so we’re sending soldiers,” Noem said in a press release. “These soldiers’ primary mission will be construction of a wall to stem the flow of illegal immigrants, drug cartels, and human trafficking into the United States of America.”
Noem’s press release noted that border encounters reached over 300,000 for the first time in the country’s history in December. The press release also stated that monthly border encounters have gone up by 452% since President Joe Biden took office.
In January, Noem said she was willing to send the South Dakota National Guard to the Texas border in support of Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX). It comes as the Texas governor and Biden have feuded over border policy, with the feud escalating in the wake of a Supreme Court decision that allowed the Biden administration to cut razor wire along the border.
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Noem also visited the border last month with the Texas National Guard and the Texas Department of Public Safety. She noted that whenever she visits the border, it has become clear that “the situation has deteriorated more and more.”
Amid Abbott and Biden’s feud over border security, Noem was one of over two dozen Republican governors who backed Abbott in January, with others including Govs. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), Glenn Youngkin (R-VA), and Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R-AR).