Alabama Governor Kay Ivey announced that she will deploy 275 soldiers from the state National Guard to the southern border, fulfilling Texas Governor Greg Abbott's request.
Every state has become a border state under the current policies, and Alabama remains committed to being an integral part of the mission to protect our Southern Border. #alpolitics pic.twitter.com/C64ORef6Sz
— Governor Kay Ivey (@GovernorKayIvey) October 5, 2023
"The Alabama National Guard always stands ready to protect our citizens, and I thank our 275 troops, as well as their families, for their important service to our country," the governor added.
A measure against the Biden administration's "policies that encourage illegal immigration"
This initiative comes weeks after Ivey and 24 other Republican governors led by Greg Gianforte (Montana) sent a letter to Joe Biden asking him "to immediately relay accurate, detailed, and thorough data to the states about who is crossing the Southern border illegally, where they are relocating, how the federal government is processing their asylum applications, and whether they are being deported."
"As a result of your policies which incentivize illegal immigration, our states are carrying the burden of both the years-long surge in illegal border crossings and cartels’ coordinated trafficking of drugs and human beings," the governors wrote in the letter.
Alabama is not the first state to call in the National Guard
In June, the governors of Virginia, West Virginia and South Carolina sent members of the National Guard to the southern border, specifically Texas, to help control immigration.
Before this, Kim Reynolds, the governor of Iowa, also called in troops.
Northern states deploy the National Guard
Troops are not only called for on the southern border. Both the governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, and her Massachusetts counterpart, Maura Healey, had to resort to calling in the National Guard to step in and address the immigration crisis they are experiencing in their states.
