A soldier with the South Dakota National Guard stands near the banks of the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass. (Photo by Justin Hamel)
More than a dozen Republican governors gathered in Eagle Pass in February, heeding a call from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to confront what he labeled “President Joe Biden’s border crisis.” Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, other GOP governors, along with other GOP state leaders, vowed to send another round of National Guard troops from their states to the Texas-Mexico border.
With shifts in pandemic-era federal border policies, there’d been a sharp increase in migrant encounters in the latter half of 2023. But then January saw a steep 50% drop.
Still, the governors told their constituents that they needed to send more people to assist Texas in fending off an “invasion,” as both Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have called it, or fight drug smuggling. But the deployments have been widely criticized as political grandstanding — opportunities to take photos near personnel in uniform on the border while feeding nationalism and fear during an election year.
States Newsroom outlets across the country have tracked state deployments and expenses so far this year as part of a collaboration with Texas Tribune and Stateline to get a sense of what becomes of these promises, and what those deployments look and feel like at the border.
States generally chip in anywhere from five to 200 troops for deployments that can last anywhere from a couple of weeks to months. Typically, the funding comes from state budgets and state emergency funds.
The federal government also deploys thousands of National Guard members to the border year-round.
Gen. Daniel Hokanson, the chief of the U.S. National Guard Bureau who will retire Sept. 1, told the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense in mid-June that nearly 2,500 troops were serving at the southwest border under federal command. Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat from Montana, asked the general about the impact of this deployment on the guard’s other duties.
“There is no military training value for what we do [on the border],” Hokanson said. “For our guardsmen there, they might as well be deployed to Kuwait or somewhere overseas, because they’re away from their families. They’re there doing mission sets that are not directly applicable to their military skill set. That time, I think, would be better utilized building readiness to deter our adversaries.” — Marisa Demarco
STATE DEPLOYMENTS
Georgia
The Georgia Army National Guard has fewer than 20 troops supporting Texas’ border operations, according to spokesman Maj. William Carraway.
Carraway said the deployments are paid for through Texas’ Emergency Management Assistance Compact and directed questions about funding to the Texas National Guard and Texas governor’s office. He declined to give a specific timeline but said the troops likely arrived in early May and that they wouldn’t be there long.
“It’s a short-term thing,” he said. “They’re just going over there, and they’re coming back. So they’re not going to be over there for years or anything like that.”
Gov. Brian Kemp announced the deployment in a Feb. 13 press conference in the Georgia Capitol, where he blamed Biden for what he termed a crisis on the southern border. Kemp said the troops will be responsible for assisting with the construction of a forward command post on the border.
Kemp has made multiple visits to the U.S.-Mexico border since he was first elected in 2019 and made immigration a major issue in both of his successful campaigns, suggesting in a 2018 commercial that he may need to round up “criminal illegals” in his big truck. — Ross Williams / Georgia Recorder
Texas
Gov. Greg Abbott launched Operation Lone Star in March 2021, soon after Biden took office. Since then, the state has deployed thousands of people from the Texas Department of Public Safety and Texas National Guard along the roughly 1,250-mile border it shares with Mexico.
It was an unprecedented activation of soldiers for a state operation. Usually the federal government, not a state, deploys troops for long-term assignments and gives them much more notice. Soon after the operation began, guard members began to complain about being paid late or not at all, living in cramped mobile homes and feeling underutilized.
Today, 97% of troops currently on the mission volunteered to be deployed, according to guard leadership. The state also just finished building the first phase of a new base in Eagle Pass to house National Guard members. The base is designed to house up to 2,300 people.
Texas has spent more than $11 billion on Operation Lone Star to date, but it’s not clear how much of the money has been spent on the National Guard deployment, and the state hasn’t divulged exactly how many people have been sent to the border. — Alejandro Serrano / The Texas Tribune
South Dakota
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem’s deployment of 60 National Guard troops in the spring is the state’s fifth deployment to the U.S.-Mexico border since 2021.
Noem initiated three of the deployments in response to calls for help from Texas, and the other two were federal.
One of the deployments Noem initiated was mostly funded by a $1 million donation from Tennessee billionaire Willis Johnson. That donation and Noem’s use of it sparked criticism from Democrats, who said it gave the appearance that the South Dakota National Guard is available to do the political bidding of wealthy donors.
Noem funded the remaining costs and the two other deployments she initiated with money from the state’s Emergency and Disaster Fund, despite a state law that defines emergencies and disasters as events “in any part of the state.” She declined to deploy guard troops to flood-ravaged areas in South Dakota in late June. Her use of the fund has drawn bipartisan criticism from some legislators, but a majority endorsed the practice during the last legislative session.
Previous deployments have cost the Emergency and Disaster Fund at least $1.3 million, and $1.5 million is budgeted from the fund for this year’s. No further deployments are planned yet. — Seth Tupper / South Dakota Searchlight
Florida
Gov. Ron DeSantis announced on Feb. 1 that Florida would deploy up to 1,000 members of the Florida National Guard and Florida State Guard to assist Texas with Operation Lone Star. That was in addition to the more than 90 officers from the Florida highway patrol, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and Florida Department of Law Enforcement that were already on the border.
A couple of weeks later on Feb. 23, DeSantis announced he would send more troops to Texas for border security — 50 National Guard members and another 76 Florida highway patrol officers.
How many troops were sent or what it cost the state remains unknown. Gov.Ron DeSantis’ press office did not respond to requests for comment.
The state budget this year provides nearly $20 million to “restore and build upon” the Florida State Guard, one of the state agencies that has been sent to deter migrants in Texas and South Florida.
Gov. DeSantis signed measures in 2022 and 2023 that included an additional $12 million to continue to relocate immigrants to “sanctuary jurisdictions.” This year, there is no funding specifically allocated for those relocations.
A spokesperson for the Florida National Guard said troops have also deployed as part of the federal mission in 2021 and 2023, with the next company set to depart in October and return a year later. — Mitch Perry / Florida Phoenix
FEDERAL DEPLOYMENTS
North Dakota
About 100 members of the National Guard deployed to the southern border in August 2023 under state orders from Gov. Doug Burgum. Members of the 188th Engineer Company, they were integrated into the Texas Department of Public Safety and Military Department for one month as part of Operation Lone Star. The North Dakota Emergency Commission authorized up to $2.2 million for the deployment through a loan with the Bank of North Dakota. About $1.7 million was spent.
Since 2021, members of the North Dakota National Guard have supported U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents every October under federal orders through the Department of Defense. North Dakota National Guard members will complete their third yearlong deployment to the southern border in the fall.
The deployed units, consisting of between 100 to 125 soldiers, are tasked with assisting with surveillance efforts, maintenance and other needs, according to the National Guard.
The 142nd Engineer Battalion will head to the southern border in the fall on federal orders under the direction of U.S. Northern Command and Joint Task Force North, according to a guard spokesperson. The unit will consist of about 50 service members. — Michael Achterling / North Dakota Monitor
Alaska
Alaska plans to send 20 National Guard members and two helicopters to the border as part of the federal Department of Defense’s ongoing border mission, according to a spokesperson for Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a Republican. They are scheduled to support the federal Border Patrol for an estimated nine months, starting in early October. While there are no official orders yet, the state continues to move forward with planning.
This mission is entirely federally funded and not related to Texas’s Operation Lone Star, according to Dunleavy’s office. The state does not have plans to send the Alaska National Guard to support Operation Lone Star, the governor’s spokesperson said.
Dunleavy said in February that he was interested in supporting Texas’s operations, but cited the cost as a potential concern. The estimated cost was $1 million per month to support 100 guard members, and the Legislature did not include funding for this in the annual budget it passed in May, which Dunleavy signed into law in June for the budget year starting in July. — Andrew Kitchenman / Alaska Beacon
LEGISLATIVE PRESSURE
Kansas
The Kansas Legislature allocated $15.7 million to send Kansas National Guard troops to Texas to assist with the U.S.-Mexico border.
Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed the funding, but she was overridden by GOP supermajorities in both the House and Senate. That means the funding remains in place through fiscal year 2025 but is unlikely to be spent.
“As the Kansas National Guard’s commander-in-chief, it is my constitutional authority to direct the National Guard while on state duty,” Kelly said when she vetoed the funding. “It is not the Legislature’s role to direct the operations or call out the National Guard.”
The governor also said “lawmakers in Washington must act to solve this issue.”
Still, there are Kansas National Guard troops at the U.S. border as part of federal security efforts, whose deployments are federally funded by the Department of Defense. — Sherman Smith / Kansas Reflector
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This article was reported and written in collaboration with The Texas Tribune, a nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
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