BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) – North Dakota is taking action to help secure the U.S.-Mexico border.
Governor Doug Burgum announced Thursday he plans to deploy about 100 North Dakota National Guard members to the southern border. The move came alongside criticism of the Biden administration. Burgum said, “The threat to national security grows every day that the Biden administration abdicates the responsibility of the federal government to secure our borders – failing to enforce existing immigration laws and failing to dedicate the resources needed to stop the tide of illegal immigration and drug trafficking that endangers lives in communities across our country. If the White House won’t address this crisis, governors will.”
The deployment is expected to last about 30 days and will take place this coming fall.
Burgum cited concern about the “risk to public safety due to drug trafficking and human trafficking, including fentanyl making its way across the southern border and into U.S. communities.”
As of now, about 125 members from the NDNG’s 1st Battalion, 112th Aviation Regiment are at the southern border. Before their deployment, 125 members of the 957th Engineer Company’s Multi-Role Bridge Company assisted U.S. Customs and Border Protection at the border for about a year. They returned in September 2022.
Source: KFYR TV
