Tennessee is sending members of the National Guard to the southern border, the latest in a line of Republican states across the nation to offer help to Texas in the border state’s showdown with the Biden administration over the immigration crisis.
Gov. Bill Lee, who visited the southern border in Eagle Pass, Texas, in February, met with Tennessee National Guard members at Millington Tennessee Army National Guard Armory ahead of their voluntary deployment.
“As America faces the most severe border crisis in decades, TN is showing the rest of the country what it means to lead,” the Tennessee governor posted on X. “Today, I joined TN National Guard members who will soon deploy on a voluntary mission to secure the Southern border as the federal government fails to act.”
Lee sent an initial deployment of 50 members, which will last through March before a second wave replaces them later in the spring. It was unclear where exactly they would be sent.
Lee visited Eagle Pass in early February along with Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry and other Republican leaders in a show of support for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
Abbott has been at the forefront of the resistance against the Biden administration, accusing the federal government of being negligent in taking care of the border and preventing illegal crossings.
Republicans at large have long criticized Biden for reversing Trump-era border policies and creating a crisis at the southern border that is seeing waves of illegal immigrants illegally cross daily.
In December alone, U.S. Border Patrol reported that there were more than 300,000 migrant encounters, an all-time high.
Biden, for his part, has repeatedly tried to blame Republicans for the crisis, claiming that his administration is working with a broken system and arguing that they need more funding and immigration reform.
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