“The border is secure” says Vice President Kamala Harris; yet almost two dozen states are sending up to 2,500 National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border. The assistance is aimed at helping federal immigration officials handle the border crisis.

“Groups that support tougher immigration restrictions say the deployment of the National Guard troops will help overburdened federal agencies deal with the surge of illegal immigration”, reports the Center Square.

The deployments were requested by the U.S. Department of Defense and Republican-led states like Kentucky, South Carolina and Arkansas, as well as Democratic-led states such as Rhode Island and Illinois will all be sending assistance. Other states sending troops include Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, DOD officials said.

“Several other states – Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oregon, Utah and Washington – will be providing National Guard aviation support for border operations, according to the department.”

“The U.S. Virgin Islands has also committed National Guard troops to the mission, which is being overseen by the U.S. Northern Command.”

The Center Square reports:

The troops were requested by DOD to assist U.S. Border Patrol in dealing with a surge of illegal trafficking of people, weapons and drugs into the country. The troops will work only in support missions, a Defense Department spokesman said, and are prohibited under federal law from detaining undocumented migrants or others caught crossing into the United States illegally…

…The U.S. Border Patrol has apprehended migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border more than 1.8 million times since October, breaking previous records, according to the agency. The Center Square, through its sources, reported in August the number of illegal entries is nearly 5 million since Biden began to occupy the White House in January 2020.