Because of the record migrant reaching the United States-Mexico border, many Republican-led states as far-off as South Dakota are deploying National Guards forces to the region at the request of the Republican-led states’ governors in Arizona and Texas who criticized the response of the Biden government to the surge.
Though cooperation with federal and state officials on the border immigration and enforcement issues are hardly new, the extent of expected involvement by American states far from the southern border broadly viewed as unprecedented. During the last some weeks, streets including Ohio, Florida, Iowa, Wisconsin, Arkansas, South Dakota, and Nebraska announced plans to deploy National Guard units or police along the southern border.
State of Disaster in Texas
In an interview with VOA, a professor at the Mortiz College of Law at Ohio State University, César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, said that federal law is really clear that military members can’t engage in law enforcement activities of any type within the U.S. territory. In addition, Greg Abbott, the Texas Republican Governor, declared a state of disaster in his State on 1st June, in response to the high volume of illegal border crossings at the Southwest border in the last few months.
Abbott ordered the state agencies and border counties to construct further barriers on the United States-Mexico border and local and state police squads to ramp up arrests of illegal immigrants. In addition, Abbott urged other states along with Arizona Republican Governor Doug Ducey to provide further force in Texas and Arizona, allowing for the concern of more perpetrators of federal and state crimes before they can cause problems in border areas and all states across the country.
American immigration lawyers told VOA that operations such as Maverick County’s vary from what the soldiers at the border can do. For example, it is not permissible for them to stand guard at or near the border, surveying for people who might unlawfully enter the U.S. without the federal government’s permission.
