Arizona Declares State of Emergency Due to Border Crisis

Arizona Governor Doug Ducey declared a state of emergency at Arizona’s southwest border yesterday. In addition, the governor said he will deploy 250 National Guard troops to help local law enforcement.

RELATED: Illegal Alien Arrests Have Dropped Drastically During Border Crisis Under Biden

Overwhelmed Border Patrol

In a recorded statement, Ducey explained the reason for declaring a state of emergency. “The U.S. Border Patrol is overwhelmed. Local law enforcement and mayors are calling out for help.

Citizens and our border communities are concerned for their safety and nonprofits, left to pick up the pieces of broken federal policies, are strained,” he said. 

Arizona becomes the first state to declare an emergency related to this year’s border crisis. Border Patrol agents are noting a rapid increase in arrests of people crossing the border illegally this year.

Officials recorded more than 168,000 arrests at the border in March. In comparison,  arrests made last December only totaled 71,000.

Ducey Allocates $25 Million For State of Emergency

The governor said Arizona will earmark $25 million to fund the National Guard mission. He has yet to give a timeline of their mission, or how long the deployment will last.

Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security didn’t issue a comment on the matter. Ducey hopes that the National Guard will help handle the hundreds of people who attempt to enter the US through Arizona’s borders daily. This number includes dozens of unaccompanied minors. 

“The situation in our border communities is just as bad, if not worse, than the coverage we’ve been seeing,” Ducey said. The governor noted that the ongoing border crisis is largely absent from national headlines.

Despite the silence, he said that the flow of migrants continues to swell. “It’s become evidently clear that Arizona needs the National Guard, and the White House is aware of that. Yet, to this day, there has been no action from this administration, and it doesn’t look like they are going to act any time soon. If this administration isn’t going to do anything, then we will,” he added. 

Ducey Wanted Emergency Action Since March

The Arizona governor pinned the crisis squarely on Biden and his administration’s illegal immigrant policies. “The numbers don’t lie, this drastic surge is a direct result of the bad policy, coming out of Washington, D.C., and yet we still haven’t received an adequate response from the Biden administration,” Ducey said.

Reports said that Ducey considered the National Guard deployment since March. He wanted to deploy troops since reading that the Biden administration faces a surge of unaccompanied minors showing up at the southern border.

This forced Customs and Border Patrol to handle thousands of more children than it’s capable of. “Deployment of the National Guard is critical to dealing with this crisis, and we are actively engaged in planning with the Guard,” a spokesman for the governor told the media last week. 

National Guard Also Deployed in Texas

For Arizona, the National Guard won’t conduct law-enforcement operations. Instead, they will help with medical operations inside detention centers.

They will also spearhead the installation, maintenance, and monitoring of a state-operated border camera network. The state is not the first to deploy National Guard troops to the border. Earlier in March, Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott sent troops to the border. However, Abbott did not declare a state of emergency at the time.

Watch the Fox News video covering Arizona Governor Ducey’s border briefing after declaring a state of emergency:

Do you support the decision by Governor Doug Ducey to declare a state of emergency and call in the National Guard? How long do you think the border crisis will last?

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