Republican governors deploy 'strike force' to secure border amid surge in migrants

More than two dozen Republican governors are launching a multistate initiative to secure the southern border amid a surge in the number of migrants appearing at the border and being detained.

The 26-state “American Governors Border Strike Force” is being launched as the Biden administration recently reported that nearly 221,000 migrants were apprehended at the southern border in the month of March.

The figure is larger than last year's high of 213,953 in July and is the third time during the presidency of Joe Biden that there have been over 200,000 migrants at the border – which only happened in two months at the height of the 2021 surge.

"President Biden has failed to secure the border, and it has deteriorated into a warzone that is threatening all of our communities," South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem told Fox News. "South Dakota has sent the National Guard to the border. Republican Governors are launching a Border Strike Force to secure our communities and partner together to protect our people."

The states involved in the effort are: Arizona, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.

The initiative is modeled after the Arizona Border Strike Force launched in 2015, which according to Gov. Doug Ducey, resulted in the seizure of 801 pounds of heroin and 985 pounds of fentanyl, among other drug seizures, since it began.

“What we’re doing in Arizona works,” Ducey said in a statement. “But this is not just an Arizona issue, it’s a national issue. If our entire southern border isn’t secure, our nation isn’t secure.”

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The development comes prior to the planned removal of the Title 42 public health authority next month. The Biden administration had rescinded the policy, effective May 23.

Former president Donald Trump implemented the order at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. His administration claimed the order was to help prevent the spread of the virus across the US' borders with Mexico and Canada.

However, health experts, immigrant rights advocates and leading Democrats argue that scientific evidence does not support its stated goal of helping to stop the spread of the virus.

Although Biden reversed some of his predecessor's hardline immigration policies after taking office in January 2021, government data indicates that his administration has expelled migrants more than a million times under the Title 42 order.

The total number of migrants expelled under the policy remains unclear since many have crossed the border more than once.

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