Gov. Eric Holcomb is deploying the Indiana National Guard to the southern border to assist Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in his fight with the federal government over border security.
Fifty Indiana soldiers will spend 10 months supporting the Texas National Guard’s mission, beginning in mid-March, Holcomb announced Friday.
“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 said. “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. The only way to resolve this is to stop the historically high flow of illegal immigrants crossing the border.”
This past Sunday, Holcomb visited the border town at the epicenter of the controversy, Eagle Pass, to stand with Abbott and 13 other governors coming to Texas’ defense.
Texas sued the federal government for cutting down the razor wire state officials installed along the Rio Grande to deter illegal immigration. In late January, in response to an emergency petition, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the federal government, without explaining why.