In an inspiring show of comradeship, Indiana has announced its decision to send its National Guard members to Texas. According to Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, the move is a response to a Texas request to restore order to the southern border.
“I am sending 50 Hoosier guardsmen to the southern border to support the Texas National Guard on their security mission,” the Republican governor disclosed on Friday, February 9. While making the announcement on his X account, the governor said, “The soldiers will begin mobilizing for the mission immediately and will arrive in Texas in mid-March.”
This move will swell the growing list of governors who have rallied behind Texas and Gov. Greg Abbott in defying Biden’s immigration policies. Gov. Abbott has been in a long battle with federal border agents over the enforcement of immigration laws.
Since President Biden took over at the White House, the situation in Mexico has continued to escalate. Federal agents have continued to encounter more and more asylum seekers. By the end of 2023, border encounters reached an unprecedented 10,000 per day.
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Texas has also locked horns with the federal government in court. Series of litigation between the two parties have traveled through many courts and given victories to both sides.
The most recent and one of the most important of such victories was a Supreme Court declaration that favored the Biden administration. The Supreme Court ruled that Texas border agents were wrong to restrict federal agents’ border access.
But Gov. Abbott seems to be defying the order as he promised to continue building barriers across the border. He has also received morale boosters from efforts such as this one from the Indiana government. Several Republican-led states also previously or currently have their National Guard troops collaborating with Texas.
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Gov. Holcomb justified his actions in his X post. “Federal negligence enforcing immigration law and the failure to secure our country’s border jeopardizes national and economic security, affecting every state, including #Indiana,” he wrote.
He also disclosed that the move is in Indiana’s best interests. “We’ve worked too hard in #Indiana attacking the drug epidemic for more #Hoosier lives to be put at risk by a constant supply of killer drugs spilled over an open U.S. border,” he said. “To resolve [this], we need to stop the historically high flow of illegal immigrants crossing the border.”
The governor also revealed that about 300 National Guard troops had assisted Texas from Indiana during his administration.
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The move has generated praise and criticism from prominent Indianans. Indiana House Speaker Todd Huston said he supports the “decision to send members of our state’s committed and hardworking National Guard to support Texas.”
But the reaction was expectedly different from Democrats. House Minority Leader Phil GiaQuinta said the move was misplaced and purely political. “Our brave men and women of the Indiana National Guard did not volunteer their service to take part in political stunts,” he said.
“I would like to see Gov. Holcomb focus on the issues immediately within his control, like standing up for our most vulnerable Hoosier families,” he added.
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