Dark Times Ahead
States gear up to fight ‘immigration crisis’
South Dakota, Florida, Arkansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Arizona and maybe New Mexico have answered a plea from the Texas governor to send National Guard troops to the southern border as the war between red and blue states heats up.
The last I checked, enforcement of the border laws is a federal responsibility but don’t tell that to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott who coincidentally is up for reelection and issued his plea for help at the border and who also has said he plans to finish the trump wall and was set to tour the area with the former, former president today. State militias have limited authorization when called to another state and the National Guard troops coming from the states may be relegated to monitoring the hordes of mother rapers and father rapers flooding in from Mexico.
The states are bypassing the federal government because they claim that President Biden isn’t getting the job done and that they yearn for a return to the inhumane policies of former president trump, like locking kids in cages and telling frightened immigrant families that the real threat of gang violence is no reason to come to the U.S.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem is the latest governor to answer the call from Texas to meet at the OK Corral and settle the problems, Texas-style. Noem, which rhymes with gnome, a legendary dwarfish creature that guards the earth’s underground treasures, said she will send up to 50 National Guard troops to be funded by a donation from the Willis and Reba Johnson’s Foundation, a private Tennessee foundation run by billionaire Republican Willis Johnson, who contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Trump campaign and who made his money through a company that auctions off wrecked cars for insurance companies and other institutions.
There are several thousand guard troops supporting border operations and under orders of the Department of Homeland Security. Guardsmen sent directly by states are under state oversight and direction and doesn’t that make you feel confident that the guardsmen are being used as political pawns by the governors.
Noem is to the right of far right, has been mentioned as a 2024 presidential candidate, is 1000 percent behind trump’s policies, including keeping Muslims out of the country, signed a bill allowing people to carry concealed weapons without a license and railed against any mandates to protect residents from the COVID-19 pandemic, including wearing protective face masks and keeping social distancing, which has led to South Dakota having had one of the largest COVID-19 outbreaks in the U.S. Noem also was on the GOP nutjob bandwagon that claims that trump lost the 2020 presidential election because of widespread voter fraud though there has been no evidence to back up the argument. She’s against same sex unions and signed a law to keep transgendered people from competing in scholastic athletics.
Noem’s promise of troops comes after a similar offer from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, coincidentally another strong trumper and possible 2024 presidential candidate. The Florida Division of Emergency Management will oversee the deployments, according to The Geller Report, by Pamela Geller, a far right blogger and avowed anti-Muslim who promoted birther conspiracy theories about President Obama.
That would be the same Gov. DeSantis who signed a new law in Florida that requires public universities to survey students and staff about their beliefs and wants to defund Florida universities that teach anti-racism. He also has repeated the lies that Biden stole the election and has pressed for new and restrictive voter laws.
In Arkansas, Gov. Asa Hutchinson said that he will be sending 40 members of the Arkansas National Guard to the border. Hutchinson has signed a law that would ban most abortions but he also has been outspoken critic of trump and said that trump’s actions led to the attack on the Capitol.
And in New Mexico, Rep. Yvette Herrell has asked the Democratic governor to deploy National Guard troops but Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham told Herrell to take her concerns to the feds. A native American, Herrell is the only Republican representative from New Mexico. A trump ally, Herrell fought against the certification of Arizona’s and Pennsylvania’s electoral votes in Congress, citing the big lie of massive voter fraud.
Moving on to Nebraska, Gov. Pete Ricketts said he will send about 60 state troopers to the border because the “disastrous policies of the Biden-Harris Administration created an immigration crisis on the border.” Ricketts joined in a failed Texas lawsuit to overturn the presidential election and has praised Georgia’s new, restrictive voting laws that are the target of a lawsuit the U.S. Justice Department.
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey announced in April that he was sending up to 250 members of the National Guard to the Mexican border. Ducey is among the few Republican lawmakers who didn’t buckle to trump pressures to decertify the electoral college results.