Southern Border War Zone

Seattle WA

Description

South Dakota GOP Gov. Kristi Noem called the southern border of the United States a "war zone," accusing President Joe Biden of refusing to enforce immigration law and letting a dangerous situation fester. Noem's comments were part of a town hall discussion hosted by "Rob Schmitt Tonight" host Rob Schmitt at the Reagan Ranch Center in Santa Barbara, California, near President Ronald Reagan's vacation home. Taking an audience question about the immigration picture, the 49-year-old Noem said: "I deployed my National Guard to the southern border when the governors of Texas and Arizona asked for help. I sent my National Guard because they are used to going to war. And let's make no mistake that what's happening at the southern border is a war. It's a war zone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e18jtLp-D1U "The federal government is not enforcing the law. They're not keeping people safe. And my National Guard was best suited to go there, complete the mission, work with other agencies, do a job, and make sure that they could come home and be successful." The U.S. Border Patrol reported detaining nearly 200,000 people attempting to cross the border into the United States from Mexico in July, the highest monthly total since March 2000. Then, last month came a new surge of some 30,000 migrants, mostly from Haiti. A crowded and sprawling migrant encampment that had taken shape under a bridge in Del Rio, Texas was finally cleared out this past weekend; up to 15,000 migrants had been present there at any one time, their status in limbo, according to the Miami Herald. Noem, who has at times been mentioned as a potential GOP presidential candidate, described how South Dakota's National Guard troops were deployed for 60 days and will return in October to offer more help. "What we have happening at that border is devastating to our future," she said. "Not only is it allowing people to come into this country that we don't know if they want to harm us or be like us, we're also facilitating drugs and human trafficking that is going to impact my state." She added, because her state includes tribal lands that neither she nor federal officials control, many of the drugs distributed throughout the Midwest transit through those areas. "So if my Guard could be there, and stop some of that at the border, then that was a good thing for my state as well," she said.