‘There are 125,000 Americans that we are losing on an annual basis due to this crisis,’ the Louisiana governor said.
Louisiana has pledged to send National Guard troops to Texas to bolster local efforts to secure the southern border amid the Lone Star’s state ongoing dispute with the Biden administration over border security.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, announced the move at a Feb. 8 press conference in Baton Rouge, amid Congressional failure to secure a border deal.
“Because the president will not do his job, because the federal government will not act, because Congress refuses to put in place a solid immigration plan that protects this country and allows people to come in and out of this country the way that it’s been done since the beginning, then the states are going to act,” Mr. Landry said.
He added that the deployment—scheduled for March at a cost of roughly $3 million—was needed to help Texas tackle issues like cross-border human trafficking and the fentanyl crisis.
“There are 125,000 Americans that we are losing on an annual basis due to this crisis,” he said, citing Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s recent announcement that 30,000 pounds of fentanyl had been seized at the border in Texas.
“That’s enough to kill almost everyone in the country,” Mr. Landry said.
The Louisiana governor said President Joe Biden’s attitude and policies on the border were encouraging waves of illegal immigration. He accused the Biden administration of having basically “dog-whistled those who are trying to come into the country illegally by saying, ‘Listen, if you swim across the Rio Grande, we will let you in that way.”
Brig. Gen. Michael Greer, the director of the Louisiana Military Department, who spoke alongside Mr. Landry at Thursday’s press conference, was asked about what actions the Louisiana National Guard troops would be authorized to take once deployed.
Mr. Greer said the Louisiana troops would not be detaining any illegal border crossers that they might encounter.
“We will refer those to local law enforcement, who have the responsibility to make those arrests,” he said.
By Tom Ozimek
