JEFFERSON CITY — Missouri has sent members of the National Guard to the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas, but the deployment is separate from a Republican-led effort to draw attention to immigration issues in the run-up to the 2024 election.
While other GOP-led states, including Florida, Arkansas, South Dakota and Iowa, have joined a red state push to send troops to the southern border in recent weeks, Missouri’s soldiers have been in the Lone Star State since last fall as part of a different mobilization.
Maj. Jeremy Idleman, a spokesman for the Missouri National Guard, declined to provide details on troop numbers, location and duties “due to operational security.â€
But, he said their commander believes “things are going well for the soldiers currently deployed there.â€
“Despite being away from their families and friends, their morale remains high and are looking forward to returning home when their tour ends,†Idleman said Tuesday.
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Another group of Missouri soldiers is set to be deployed in the next fiscal year, which begins July 1, said Kelli Jones, a spokeswoman for Gov. Mike Parson.
In May, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, requested assistance from other states to address concerns about drug and human trafficking on his state’s border with Mexico.
Last week, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem announced plans to send troops to the international border, joining Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who issued an order last month as part of his campaign for president in 2024.
The gubernatorial border decisions come as DeSantis is attempting to beat former President Donald Trump for the GOP nomination next year. As chief executive, Trump’s plan for immigration control focused on the idea of building a wall across the southern border to repel immigrants. It was not completed as he promised and Trump was defeated in the 2020 election.
It isn’t the first time Missouri has sent troops to the border.
In 2018, Parson’s predecessor, Republican Eric Greitens, deployed four Missouri Army National Guard troops and one helicopter to Arizona to help border protection.
Greitens called it a “critical mission†even though the guard members were in a support role, providing only aerial surveillance.
In the case of Virginia, the cost to send 100 troops and additional support personnel to Texas for 30 days was estimated at $3.1 million per month. In Missouri, the agency’s yearly budget is $54 million, with much of that coming from the federal government.
The cost to Missouri taxpayers depends on the number of troops and how long they are deployed. It also depends on whether the Department of Defense is paying for the mobilization.
In making her announcement, South Dakota’s governor said the state would deploy at least 50 soldiers as part of the buildup. Sanders, in Arkansas, said 80 troops were heading south.
In the run-up to the 2024 election, GOP governors have sought to make immigration another hot-button issue for voters, blaming Biden for migrants at the southern border after the Title 42 public health authority affecting entry into the United States expired on May 11.
Title 42 allowed for the expulsion of foreign nationals who’d entered the U.S. illegally during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In Abbott’s request to governors for assistance, he said the threat is from Mexican drug cartels and other criminal enterprises who are profiting off of immigration.
“In the federal government’s absence, we, as Governors, must band together to combat President Biden’s ongoing border crisis and ensure the safety and security that all Americans deserve,†Abbott wrote.
But, following the end of Title 42, U.S. border patrol agents reported a 50% drop in the number of migrants crossing the border.
The Democratic governors in three states along the southern border — New Mexico, Arizona and California — have not made similar requests for National Guard assistance.