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Special projects director Dylan Nolan and I arrived in Yuma, Arizona earlier this week to get the scoop on America’s escalating border crisis. Turns out, we couldn’t have picked a more important time to come – and I’m not just referring to the recent expiration of Title 42 (a.k.a. “remain in Mexico”), a Covid-era border policy implemented by former U.S. president Donald Trump.
A ton of border-related news broke during our visit – including the announced resignation of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) chief Raul Ortiz on Tuesday evening. Ortiz had been at the helm of the agency since August of 2021 – and has been outspoken about the deteriorating situation at the southern border since U.S. president Joe Biden inherited the presidency from Trump in January 2021.
Then, on Wednesday afternoon, South Carolina governor Henry McMaster announced he had “directed the deployment” of S.C. National Guard troops to “help secure the U.S. southern border in Texas.”
The announced deployment came in the aftermath of a May 16, 2023 request from Texas governor Greg Abbott for governors to “band together to combat President Biden’s ongoing border crisis and ensure the safety and security that all Americans deserve.”
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“I have directed the deployment of South Carolina National Guard troops to Texas to help hold the line on the southern border,” McMaster said in a statement. “The safety and security of South Carolinians require that we stop the drug cartels, criminals, and terrorists from entering our country to peddle their poison.”
Troop estimates and details surrounding their mission were not immediately available.
“The mission remains in the planning phase, and exact details, including the number of troops, will be finalized in the coming weeks with the goal of deployment by July 1,” McMaster’s release noted.
McMaster was one of nine governors who attended a “security briefing” in Austin, Texas on May 22, 2023 related to the border crisis. He was joined at that gathering by Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Idaho governor Brad Little, Iowa governor Kim Reynolds, Mississippi governor Tate Reeves, Nebraska governor Jim Pillen, Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt, Tennessee governor Bill Lee and Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin.
(Click to View)
At the meeting, Abbott “highlighted how President Biden’s refusal to secure the border is a national security threat, noting that sixteen individuals on the terrorist watchlist were arrested just last month at the border.” Abbott pleaded with the assembled governors to join Idaho and Florida in sending their troops to the border.
“The flood of illegal border activity invited by the Biden Administration flows directly across the southern border into Texas communities, but this crisis does not stop in our state,” Abbott said.
On that point, he is absolutely correct. Something we definitively established on our visit to the border is that illegal immigrants don’t hang around the communities where they cross for very long. Typically, they are moving out of the border region within 24-48 hours and arriving at their final destinations within 72 hours.
Stay tuned for much more border coverage in the coming days, weeks and months as Dylan and I process the massive amount of information we have received over the past few days here in Yuma, Arizona.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and seven children.
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11 comments
What a performative waste of time and money.
“The safety and security of South Carolinians require that we stop the drug cartels, criminals, and terrorists from entering our country to peddle their poison.”
Remember the SC citizens killed in Mexico recently? The gun that killed them came from the United States.
Insanity.
Your tax dollars at work South Carolina!
Sending your national guard away during hurricane season is brilliant.
It was what, 100 soldiers? The SCANG has almost 9,300 soldiers assigned. I think we’ll be okay.
Yes, considering SC is nowhere near the border, I think y’all would have okay without McFoghornLeghorn wasting your tax dollars in the first place.
But glad you feel more safe, “colonel”.
Reading is fundamental… No where did I imply support for the decision or even weigh in on is validity. I simply pointed out that the assignment of troops via an Interstate Support agreement put SC at no risk.
Now that you’ve brought the subject up, I do feel “more safe” because our Guardsmen are getting some real world training this year vice an Annual Training stent at McEntire where they assemble at 0700, have classes until 1130, take lunch from 1130 to 1300, have a “diversity class” from 1300-1430 and then do PMCS or records review for a couple of hours before heading home to then rinse and repeat for the rest of the 14 days. The Joint Guard staff and EMD are also getting exercise they don’t normally get, planning and supporting this deployment. In fact, it’s a win-win for anyone who knows anything about how the Reserve Forces work. Not that you asked…
Waste of time and money. Just showmanship. NG troop (100) is a meaningless gesture.
WTF?
It is estimated now that there are over 30,000 illegal aliens in South Carolina!!!!!!!
Most of them work for lawless building construction companies under the approval of land developers. Illegals are even working on new government construction projects all over the state. Even SC government officials know this and fail, fail, fail!!!
Dear Foghorn, Way to make a stand against those terrible brown people. Are you going to deploy the dogs so that you can hunt them down?
Someone needs to inform the GOP and SC’s utterly clueless Governor Leghorn that performative politics are a colossal waste of time. It turns off voters and enrages taxpayers as we see our tax dollars flying down to Texas in service to the GOP which apparently, has very little to actually run on. Maybe they should spend more time developing a true platform than pulling stunts like this.
But I thought Trump fixed everything by making Mexico pay for a wall? This must be fake news.
I like this. I love it!
Our country. Our border. Our choice.