PHOENIX — Arizona's governor on Friday ordered the state's National Guard to the border with Mexico to help federal officials manage an influx of migrants.
Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs said she issued the executive order because “the federal government is refusing to do its job to secure our border and keep our communities safe.”
“I am taking action where the federal government won’t,” Hobbs said.
It was unclear when the troops would arrive at the border and exactly how many would be mobilized.
A member of U.S. Customs and Border Protection tries to control a group of migrants Dec. 5 as hundreds gather along the border after breaking through gaps in the border wall in Lukeville, Ariz. The U.S. Border Patrol says it is overwhelmed by a shift in human smuggling routes.
Hobbs asked President Joe Biden's administration a week ago to mobilize 243 Arizona National Guard troops already in the Border Patrol's Tucson sector that includes Lukeville, Arizona, to help federal officers reopen the border crossing that was indefinitely closed Dec. 4.
Customs and Border Protection has said shutting down the official crossing was necessary to allow personnel stationed there to help Border Patrol agents manage the hundreds of migrants illegally crossing in that area daily.
Although remote, the crossing is a popular route for Arizonans traveling to the Mexican resort of Puerto Peñasco, or Rocky Point, about 62 miles (100 kilometers) south of the border on the northern shores of the Sea of Cortez.
Hobbs said the National Guard members will be stationed at multiple locations along the southern border, including around Lukeville.
There, they will support state and local agencies engaged in law enforcement, including interdiction of illegal drugs and human trafficking.
Hundreds of migrants, mostly from African countries, gather Dec. 5 along the border waiting to be brought into custody after breaking through gaps in the border wall in Lukeville, Ariz.
The San Miguel crossing located farther east on the Tohono O'odham Nation is also seeing hundreds of migrant arrivals daily, but tribal officials said the National Guard would not be stationed on the reservation.
“We are in close communication with Governor Hobbs on this issue," said Verlon Jose, chairman of the Tohono O’odham Nation. "We made clear that no National Guard would be deployed to the Nation and her office has agreed. Today’s action by the Governor is a necessary step in addressing the current crisis at the border.”
Hobbs said the Biden administration had not responded to her request that the U.S. government reimburse Arizona for border security spending.
Customs and Border Protection officials said they did not have an immediate response to the governor's decision.
The Arizona Department of Emergency and Military Affairs, National Guard confirmed Friday afternoon it was activating members.
Major Gen. Kerry L. Muehlenbeck, who oversees the Arizona National Guard, noted that in September it wrapped up a 30-month active-duty mission providing support to law enforcement agencies in southern Arizona.
Muehlenbeck said the earlier mission provided logistics, administrative, cyber, and medical support.
U.S. Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva, who represents southern Arizona, said he disagreed with Hobbs' executive order.
"But I do appreciate that Governor Hobbs has rejected the brutal and cruel tactics of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Texas Governor Greg Abbott who have taken advantage of this crisis to inhumanely and illegally use migrants as political pawns and to politicize and pander instead of working on real solutions,” Grijalva said in a statement.
Americas reeling as flow of migrants reaches historic levels
A migrant who crossed into the U.S. from Mexico is pulled under concertina wire along the Rio Grande river Sept. 21, 2023, in Eagle Pass, Texas. Countries in the Americas are reeling as the flow of migrants reaches historic levels, but international “funds simply aren’t there” for humanitarian needs. Global crises — among them the war in Ukraine, conflict in Sudan, Morocco’s earthquake — have pulled global funds away, said Ugochi Daniels, deputy director of operations for the International Organization for Migration.
Migrants who crossed the Rio Grande river to the U.S. from Mexico seek direction from a guardsman Sept. 22, 2023, in Eagle Pass, Texas. A growing number of countries like Panama and Costa Rica are pleading for international aid in handling the flood of migrants passing through the Americas.
Migrants who crossed the Rio Grande and entered the U.S. from Mexico head to be processed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection Sept. 23, 2023, in Eagle Pass, Texas. As more than 7.2 million people have fled the South American nation's economic and political turmoil, the mass migration has received pennies on the dollar in aid compared to other global migration crises like Syria's.
A woman carries her child after she and other migrants crossed the Rio Grande and entered the U.S. from Mexico, to be processed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection Sept. 23 in Eagle Pass, Texas.
A young girl watches as she and other migrants who crossed the Rio Grande and entered the U.S. from Mexico are lined up for processing by U.S. Customs and Border Protection Sept. 23, 2023, in Eagle Pass, Texas. An emergency was declared when several thousand migrants crossed into Eagle Pass, Texas, over a few days.
Migrants sit atop a northbound freight train, in Irapuato, Mexico on Sept. 23, 2023.
Migrants sleep outside a train station as they wait for the arrival of a northbound freight train, in Irapuato, Mexico, on Sept. 22, 2023.
Migrants travel on a freight train, arriving in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Sept. 28, 2023. Despite violence from drug cartels and the dangers that come with riding atop the train cars, such freight trains — known collectively as “The Beast” — have long been used by migrants to travel north.
A migrant man watches as a northbound freight train pulls into Irapuato, Mexico, on Sept. 23, 2023.
Guardsmen encourage migrants waiting on a sandbar to turn around as they attempt cross the Rio Grande from Mexico into the U.S. on Sept. 23, 2023, in Eagle Pass, Texas.
A U.S. Border Patrol agent in a vehicle watches a group of asylum-seekers at a camp after they crossed the nearby border with Mexico, on Sept. 26, 2023, near Jacumba Hot Springs, Calif. Migrants continue to arrive to desert campsites along California's border with Mexico, as they await processing.
Migrants walk beside a freight train they rode to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Sept. 28, 2023. So many migrants are climbing aboard trains that Mexico’s largest railway company said it was suspending 60 freight train runs because of safety concerns, citing a series of injuries and deaths.
Migrants travel on a freight train, arriving in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Sept. 28, 2023. A vast smuggling network can now get migrants from Venezuela to central Mexico in as little as just over two weeks, an odyssey that once could take months. Detentions along the U.S.-Mexico border soared 33% from June to July, according to U.S. government figures, reversing a plunge after new asylum restrictions were introduced in May.
Migrants travel on a freight train, arriving in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Sept. 28, 2023.
Migrants walk beside a freight train that brought them to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Sept. 28, 2023.
Migrants travel on a freight train, arriving in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Sept. 28, 2023.
