After more than a year of witnessing the terrible effects of President Biden’s open-border policies, Republican governors are teaming together in a new approach to combat some of the administration’s most detrimental outcomes.
More than two dozen Republican governors, led by Arizona Governor Doug Ducey and Texas Governor Greg Abbott, announced the formation of the American Governors’ Border Strike Force, which aims to disrupt and dismantle transnational criminal organizations that are taking advantage of the chaos Joe Biden has created along the southern border.
The Border Strike Force is focused on addressing the criminal enterprises that are flooding our communities with drugs while reaping billions of dollars from human smuggling and causing a record-breaking number of apprehensions at the Southern Border, as Julio has witnessed and reported from the US-Mexico border.
Members of the new Border Strike Force cited a significant increase in illegal immigration crossings, which has resulted in more drugs entering the country, more dangerous individuals evading arrest, and more victims of human trafficking. As a result, criminal organizations on both sides of the border profit from illegal immigrants through extortion and trafficking.
According to a joint memorandum of agreement released by the Republican governors, the solution is to boost coordination, improve intelligence, invest in analysis, combat human smuggling, and stop the flow of drugs into their states.
According to Customs and Border Protection reports, more than 5,400 pounds of heroin, 97,000 pounds of cocaine, 190,000 pounds of methamphetamine, and 11,200 pounds of fentanyl were intercepted coming across the US-Mexico border in FY 2021, and this comes on the heels of a report that 23 illegal immigrants were flagged in the Terrorist Screening Database last year.
In the lack of action from the Biden administration to secure or prevent the flow of people and drug trafficking across the US-Mexico border, the governors claim that the federal government’s failure to do so has obliged them to act to safeguard their populations’ health, safety, and welfare.
The Strike Force includes Governors Kay Ivey (AL), Mike Dunleavy (AK), Asa Hutchinson (AR), Ron DeSantis (FL), Brian Kemp (GA), Brad Little (ID), Eric Holcomb (IN), Kim Reynolds (IA), Larry Hogan (MD), Tate Reeves (MS), Mike Parson (MO), Greg Gianforte (MT), Pete Ricketts (NE), Chris Sununu (NH), Doug Burgum (ND), Mike DeWine (OH), Kevin Stitt (OK), Henry McMaster (SC), Kristi Noem (SD), Bill Lee (TN), Spencer Cox (UT), Glenn Youngkin (VA), Jim Justice (WV), and Mark Gordon (WY).
