Governor Bill Lee announced Wednesday evening that he authorized the deployment of 100 Tennessee National Guard troops to secure the U.S.-Mexico border.
“America continues to face an unprecedented border crisis that threatens our nation’s security and the safety of Tennesseans,” Lee said in a statement. “The federal government owes Americans a plan to secure our country, and in the meantime, states continue to answer this important call to service. I am again authorizing the Tennessee National Guard to help secure the Southern border, and I commend these troops for providing critical support.”
America continues to face an unprecedented border crisis that threatens our nation’s security & the safety of Tennesseans.
Today, I authorized the deployment of 100 TN National Guard troops to support Operation Lone Star in TX. https://t.co/el9ZNXEo73
— Gov. Bill Lee (@GovBillLee) May 25, 2023
The 100 Tennessee troops, according to the governor’s office, will deploy at the end of May to provide the following support along the U.S. southern border:
- Patrolling and providing additional security presence along the border
- Assisting road and route clearance, barrier placement and debris removal
- Staffing outpost operations
Lee’s announcement comes one week after he and fellow Republican governors released a statement vowing to “stand ready to protect the U.S.-Mexico border and keep families safe.”
The announcement also comes days after Lee joined Texas Governor Greg Abbott at a Monday border security briefing in Austin. Abbott invited states to support “Operation Lone Star” to secure the U.S. southern border following the end of Title 42.
“The men and women of the Tennessee National Guard are always ready to serve their country anywhere, anytime,” Brigadier General Warner Ross, Tennessee’s adjutant general, added in a statement. “These troops are a capable contingent that will continue our long-standing tradition of responding to the call to aid our fellow Americans. The Tennessee National Guard is proud to serve and support our state partners in safeguarding the United States along the U.S. Southern border.”
This is not the first time the Tennessee National Guard has supported border security efforts. In December 2021, Lee authorized the deployment of 50 additional troops to respond to the surge in illegal crossings and drug-related activity along the U.S. Southern border, as previously reported by The Tennessee Star.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
Background Photo “Bill Lee” by Bill Lee.
Just do not let these men and women become facilitators of Biden’s catch and release disaster. They should stand with the Texas guard and DPS in apprehending the illegals and putting them into jail or deporting them back to anywhere.
This would be unnecessary if the Biden Administration had not created the border chaos. This would be unnecessary if Harris was responsible, capable and willing to address the border problem she was assigned to resolve. She did absolutely nothing. This deploying Tennessee Guard troops to the border if Biden had left well enough alone when he took office. The caging of children, the splitting of families occurred under Obama a point the left seems to forget. While that was deplorable today we have drugs pouring across the border, human trafficking, an astronomical increase in crime, illegal aliens taxing our resources with no end in sight. Biden has hurt this country, damages that will take years to unravel.