GOP Governors Rush to Support Despicable Border Theatre

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

In a political stunt that is fraught with both legal and ethical concerns, the Republican governors of Texas and Arizona have asked their fellow governors to send assistance to help them police their southern borders.  Two other governors, again both Republicans, have stepped forward with pledges of support.

The US government currently has 3,600 federally authorized troops on the border along with the ability to easily summon more should that become necessary, but Governor Abbott of Texas and Governor Ducey of Arizona are initiating some political theatre in their states in support of the last President's campaign strategy of demonizing immigrants from south of the US border.   

Florida's Governor Ron Desantis was the first to respond to the call.  DeSantis said that during the last two weeks of June he sent more that 50 members of Florida law enforcement to Texas to assist in patrolling the border.  His law enforcement troops included members of the state Department of Law Enforcement, Highway Patrol, and Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.  At the same time Florida was sending those people to Texas, it was also asking other states to send personnel into Florida to help with the rescue and cleanup operations at the high-rise collapse in Miami.

Late last week South Dakota's Governor Kristi Noem got into the act.  She announced that her state would be sending up to fifty National Guard troops to Texas to help with the state's border operations.  Noem, as governor, heads up the state's National Guard when it isn't filling a role for the federal government, so she has the power and authority to send those units on assignment.  This particular assignment, however, is sketchy because she has chosen to fund it through a private donation - a donation made by a GOP mega-donor and minor billionaire from Tennessee.  With that peculiar backing, the deployment more closely resembles a political exercise than a legitimate military operation.

Some are comparing the private funding of a National Guard maneuver as a "mercenary" exercise or a private rental operation.  Questions abound over the legality and ethics of the operation, as well as the liability that could result from the privately funded exercise.

Also worth noting is the fact that the two Republican governors rushing to provide assistance at the border, DeSantis and Noem, both seem to be gearing up for presidential runs in 2024, and some observers are suggesting that they are using the "crisis" at the border to burnish their "tough on immigration" credentials.

Of course, neither DeSantis nor Noem are going down into the blistering heat of south Texas and patrolling the border themselves, but neither have qualms about sending others to represent them in their battle for the White House border.

May the charade ultimately prove harmless, both to the impoverished and desperate immigrants seeking sanctuary and opportunity in the US, as well as to the law enforcement agents and guardsmen who are being used as pawns in the run up to the next presidential election.  Neither group should have to suffer through this despicable political theatre.