(The Center Square) – Gov. Mike DeWine announced that 14 Ohio state police members will join National Guard troops from across the county to help law enforcement surveil the Texas border.
The troopers and supervisors plan to travel to Texas in the coming weeks and spend two weeks on the border. They will not be able to make arrests.
It’s the second group of troopers sent to the state, following a deployment of 14 in July 2021 in response to a request from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
Ohio has maintained a presence at the southern border since October 2020 when DeWine sent 115 members of the Ohio National Guard to support border operations at the request of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the National Guard Bureau.
Since then, DeWine has sent nearly 225 guard members to Texas, and 125 of those remain on active duty. A new rotation of 50 guard members is expected to be sent to Texas in October.
DeWine’s office and the Ohio Department of Public Safety did not immediately have taxpayer cost estimates for the Ohio trooper deployment.
As previously reported by The Center Square, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sent a letter to all 50 governors last month asking for help as the Title 42 rule ended with the pandemic health emergency. The rule allowed the government to expel illegal immigrants because of the health emergency.
South Dakota announced Thursday it would send troops. In addition to South Dakota, 23 other states have committed to helping secure the southern border, including Arkansas, Florida, North Dakota, South Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia and Virginia.
Also recently reported by The Center Square, undocumented immigrants cost states tens of millions of dollars, and a new rule will worsen the situation, 18 attorneys general argue in a lawsuit filed against the Biden administration.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in western North Dakota, is also signed by the attorneys general of Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming.
