Texas, Arizona call on other states to send law enforcement help to patrol border

DALLAS (NewsNation Now) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbot and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey penned a joint letter asking their fellow governors asking them to send additional law enforcement and resources to help patrol their states’ borders, referring to their states as “ground zero” of the border crisis.

“We will restore safety to the citizens who live in the Lone Star State,” Abbott said during a press conference Wednesday.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis heeded that call, announcing he’d deploy men and women from at least a dozen agencies from his state to Texas and Arizona. While sparse on specifics, like when personnel would be sent or how many, he added that the move would mitigate human trafficking and fight the opioid crisis which kills 21 Floridians a day.

“We are the first state to commit support for this effort,” DeSantis said. “If that border was under control, we would have less meth pouring into Florida communities.”

The # of illegal border crossings this fiscal year is already the most since 2006. This is a crisis, our law enforcement professionals need help.

In response, @GovAbbott and I sent a letter to all US governors requesting law enforcement support along the border in our states. 1/ pic.twitter.com/U0dywS6XBz
— Doug Ducey (@dougducey) June 10, 2021

“Where we used to make a bust of ounces of those type of illegal narcotics, we’re now into pounds.”

Officials with the Florida Bay County Sheriff’s Office spoke to NewsNation about what the department might look like.

“So they will go, and I believe the governor mentioned a 14-day stay to help, and once they complete that 14-day stay, the request will go out to the different counties. And we’ll begin to see the opportunity to respond at that time,” said Ruth Corley, a spokesperson for the Bay County Sheriff’s Office.

Florida was the first and only state, so far, to answer the call. But Thursday morning in Washington, D.C., other lawmakers calling out the Biden administration and Vice President Kamala Harris for not doing more.

“And (Vice President Harris) was appointed by President Biden to deal with it; she hasn’t been to the border, she hasn’t even pretended to care about it,” said Rep. Glenn Grothman, R-Wis.

Gov. Abbott said Wednesday that he will use $250 million in state money and crowdsourced financing to build more barriers along the U.S. border with Mexico, part of an emerging proposal that also extends his political fight over immigration with the Democratic Biden administration.