JEFFERSON CITY — Gov. Mike Parson will visit the Texas border, where he and 13 other visiting Republican governors will be briefed on the state’s Operation Lone Star mission, Parson’s office announced Thursday.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott will lead a security briefing for the governors on Sunday, along with the head of the Texas National Guard, a top official in the Texas Department of Public Safety, and the state’s newly named “.”
The governors will hold a news conference following the briefing, addressing “the unprecedented actions being taken by states to protect Americans in response to President Joe Biden’s reckless open border policies,” the announcement said.
Both events will be held at in the border town of Eagle Pass, which has been the center of controversy in the state’s standoff with the federal government over immigration.
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Governors Kim Reynolds of Iowa, Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas and Jim Pillen of Nebraska, among others, will be at the Sunday event.
Two Missouri National Guard companies have already been deployed to the southern border and any announcement of additional National Guard support will be made “at a later date,” Parson spokesperson Johnathan Shiflett said in an email.
The Sunday trip and security briefing are to help the governors understand the impacts of the “federal government failing to secure the southern border,” Shifflett said.
There’s already precedent for sending Missouri’s National Guard to the southern border. Both Parson and his predecessor, Republican Eric Greitens, have lent the state’s military force for border protection.
Parson’s trip comes during the crescendo of election-year politics and increasing recriminations between Texas and the federal government over the handling of U.S.-Mexico border.
“Governor Abbott is a good friend,” Parson told reporters at an event last week. “I think everything he is doing right now is the things he should be doing.”
Parson said sending more National Guard troops to Texas is “on the table.”
In the first month of the legislative business, Republican state lawmakers in Missouri have filed a number of proposals related to border security and immigration.
Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, an Arnold Republican who is running to fill the seat of retiring Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer, last week announced a that would “urge the Governor” to activate Missouri’s National Guard “to aid the officials of Texas in the protection of the borders of the United States.”
Sen. Bill Eigel, R-Weldon Spring, who is waging an aggressive campaign for governor, last week introduced a that would block undocumented immigrants from receiving public benefits and impose a $10,000 fine and felony charges for being in Missouri.
In a statement last week, Eigel said, “My message to those here illegally: enjoy it while it lasts, because the moment my hand comes off the Bible at the inauguration, we’re taking action to deport illegals out-of-here.”
Sen. Holly Thompson Rehder, R-Sikeston, a candidate for lieutenant governor this week announced a with a variety of immigration-related provisions, including felony charges for “transportation, concealment, or inducement of an illegal alien” and a $25,000-per-day fine for any city that adopts “sanctuary city” policies.
At a news conference Thursday, House Speaker Dean Plocher, R-Des Peres, said of illegal immigration, “We have to tackle that issue.”
But Democratic state lawmakers say discussion of immigration and the border is about politics.
“I’m not surprised that the Speaker is talking about immigration when that’s what the national rhetoric is right now around the presidential election,” said House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, a Springfield Democrat who is running for governor. “Unfortunately, what’s going in D.C. is what the Republicans want to talk about here in Missouri.”
Senate Minority Leader John Rizzo, D-Independence, said today he thinks the intention in going to the southern border is to generate media attention.
“It’s a show,” Rizzo said.
While Rizzo acknowledged “there is a crisis at the border” and said action needs to be taken, he said former President Donald Trump and Republicans want to campaign on immigration in 2024.
“They have to blow it (a border deal) up because the ‘Supreme Leader’ said so,” he said.
Jack Suntrup of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.