Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey on Wednesday urged President Biden to declare a national emergency at the border, a day after the Republican governor deployed the National Guard and issued an emergency statement in response to the migrant crisis.
“President Biden, if you care about the border, if you care about stopping the cartels that are engaged in all kinds of bad deeds … if you want to stop the disaster that is unfolding here and will only get worse in the coming months, President “Biden, you must declare a national state of emergency and deploy the great forces of your administration to stop what is happening here,” Ducey told a news conference at the border near Yuma.
ARIZONA DEM SENS. SINEMA, KELLY BACK GOVERNOR’S MOVEMENT TO SERVE THE NATIONAL GUARD AT BORDER
Ducey announced Tuesday that he was hiring 250 members of the National Guard to help deal with the rising numbers, which overwhelmed a record number of migrant encounters and local authorities. He was at the border meeting with local law enforcement and border officials about the crisis and related security threats.
The guard will be involved in installing and maintaining border cameras, collecting data, analyzing images for trends at border crossings and assisting with operations at detention centers, Ducey’s office said.
The Biden government refused to call the situation a ‘crisis’, but rather called a ‘challenge’ and blamed the Trump administration for ending legal asylum. Critics have blamed the Biden government’s return to the Trump era’s enforcement and border protection.
Ducey claimed that the White House claimed he was not acting and that he did not plan.
“We get whips of all the mixed signals you send,” he said Wednesday.
ARIZONA GOV. DUCEY PLACES THE NATIONAL GUARD TO SOUTHERN BORDER TO MIGRANT CRISIS
Ducey was contemplating the guard, but asked the federal government to compensate the state in advance for the deployment. On Wednesday, he confirmed that the state has so far paid the costs.
“We are willing to pay for it from our own budget, even though it is a federal responsibility and the cost has to be paid by the federal government,” he said.
Ducey has the support of his Democratic senators. Both sens. Mark Kelly and Kyrsten Sinema expressed their support for the moves. Both senators later wrote to President Biden urging him to compensate Arizona for deploying the National Guard.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“We know the national guard can provide significant assistance at the border and note that there are about 500 guards in the Yuma and Tucson sectors,” the Democrats wrote in a letter. “As such, we urge you to reimburse the State of Arizona for the deployment announced by the Governor yesterday to support border security and continue to increase DHS staff who can further assist in the processing of migrants, border security and carrying out important security missions. “