Arizona governor signs order deploying National Guard to state’s border

Arizona’s governor signed an executive order deploying National Guard troops stationed in the state to its southern border Friday.

“With this Executive Order, I am taking action where the federal government won’t,” Gov. Katie Hobbs (D-Ariz.) said in a statement on the new order.

The order comes after U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced it would close the Lukeville, Ariz., port of entry on Dec. 1, taking effect on Dec. 4 until further notice. Hobbs blamed the decision for a resulting “unmitigated humanitarian crisis in the area,” putting “Arizona’s safety and commerce at risk.”

Hobbs’s order comes a week after she sent President Biden a letter asking him to reassign National Guard troops at the port of entry.

“Despite continued requests for assistance, the Biden administration has refused to deliver desperately needed resources to Arizona’s border,” Hobbs said in her statement.

In her letter, Hobbs suggested the president reassign 243 National Guard members stationed in the Tuscon Sector to be reassigned to the Lukeville port of entry. In the executive order, Hobbs reassigned them herself.

Hobbs’s action comes amid intense debates at the national level over border policy in Congress. Senate Democrats are divided over a possible deal that some suspect could include intense asylum policy reforms. 

Leaks saying the Biden administration is gearing up to support new authority to expel migrants without asylum screenings, and expand their detention and deportation, raised some fears among some Senate Democrats. Some also fear Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.J) could quickly bring a border security deal to the floor next week, surprising them.

“If @SenSchumer thinks he can send us home for the weekend, quietly cave to Republicans’ anti-immigrant demands while nobody is watching, and then ambush Democrats expecting us to vote yes with a smile, he is TERRIBLY MISTAKEN.” Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), a leading Democratic voice on immigration issues, posted on the social media platform X.  

The New Jersey senator said, “Schumer and those Democrats who are contemplating these proposals need to understand that these Trumpian policies will do nothing to address our challenges at the border and will only exacerbate the problem.”