Following the expiration of Title 42, Gov. Greg Abbott sent letters to governors across the nation, requesting assistance in handling Texas’ border crisis. Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Gov. Brad Little of Idaho agreed to send personnel.
Title 42 was a Trump-era public health order that allowed customs officials to send illegal aliens from “COVID-19 impacted” areas back across the border without processing them through the federal court system.
Last week, President Joe Biden allowed Title 42 to expire and has failed to enforce immigration policies already in place, causing the border crisis to worsen.
Abbott’s letters to his fellow governors requested support in defending the border:
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.
The first governors to respond were Governors DeSantis and Little, both Republicans.
DeSantis plans to send resources and deploy more than 1,100 personnel to Texas, including:
- 800 Florida National Guard Soldiers
- 200 Florida Department of Law Enforcement Officers, in teams of 40
- 101 Florida Highway Patrol Troopers
- 20 Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Officers
- 20 Emergency Management Personnel – including radio technicians, logisticians, mechanics and planners
- Five available fixed wing aircraft with monitoring equipment and downlink capabilities with two aviation crew teams
- Two Mobile Command Vehicles and two command teams
- 17 available unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) and support teams
- 10 vessels – including airboats, shallow draft vessels, and mid-range vessels
“The impacts of Biden’s Border Crisis are felt by communities across the nation, and the federal government’s abdication of duty undermines the sovereignty of our country and the rule of law,” said DeSantis.
“At my direction, state agencies including law enforcement and the Florida National Guard are being deployed to Texas, with assets including personnel, boats and planes,” he continued. “While Biden ignores the crisis he created, Florida stands ready to help Texas respond to this crisis.”
Florida’s resources are expected to be deployed within the next 24 hours.
Little plans to send state police to assist at the border; however, he has yet to announce how many personnel he will deploy.
“Governor Little is preparing to travel to the Texas-Mexico border in two weeks and deploy a team of Idaho State Police (ISP) personnel to assist the State of Texas on a month-long mission for drug and fentanyl interdiction efforts at the border,” reads a press release from Little’s office.
“Idaho is proud to support Gov. Abbott alongside Gov. Ron DeSantis in response to the ongoing border crisis,” Little posted on Twitter. “We are stepping up to protect our communities and our nation!”
Abbott thanked Little in a social media post and said, “With the help of states like Idaho, we continue to fill dangerous gaps created by Biden’s open border policies.”
This is not the first time Little and DeSantis have deployed troops to help Texas defend the U.S.-Mexico border.
In 2021, DeSantis sent approximately 100 law enforcement officers to the Texas-Mexico border. In June 2022, Little sent state police troopers to the border to “assist with intelligence gathering.”
Meanwhile, the White House is still arguing that the border crisis is improving.
“While Governors Abbott and DeSantis remain stuck on political stunts, unlawful border crossings have dropped sharply since President Biden’s plan to humanely manage the border went into full effect,” White House spokesperson Abdullah Hasan said in an emailed statement on Tuesday night.
A series of relatively weak border security bills passed through the Texas House last week, with Speaker Dade Phelan siding with Democrats to kill key border legislation.
With the border security legislation now awaiting an uncertain future in the Texas Senate, border security advocates are calling for state senators to strengthen the proposed measures.
To learn more about the crisis at the border, click here.
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