20 Governors Demand that the Biden Administration Start Taking the Border Crisis Seriously

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May 16, 2021

In a weekly newsletter for immigration restriction group NumbersUSA, Chris Chmielenski, the group’s Deputy Director, highlighted 20 Republican governors’ decision to send a letter to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris urging them to immediately address the current crisis at the southern border.

They stressed how the current border crisis is greatly straining state resources. The letter was sent to the Biden-Harris administration a few days before the Department of Homeland Security released its apprehension figures for April.

Border Patrol officers apprehended 173,460 illegal aliens in April. This figure represents a 20-year high and an increase of over 4,000 from the numbers in March. 

Although border states with Republican governors like Arizona and Texas were quick to sign on to the letter, the majority of governors who signed on did not belong to border states. In the letter they stated how the current situation is a full-fledged crisis:

The crisis is too big to ignore and is now spilling over the border states into all of our states. Recently, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services called upon many of our states to identify potential housing locations for migrants. In addition, the Department circumvented our states altogether by asking private organizations and nonprofits to house unaccompanied migrant children. Often these facilities lack adequate security.

Allowing the federal government to place a potentially unlimited number of unaccompanied migrant children into our states’ facilities for an unspecified length of time with almost zero transparency is unacceptable and unsustainable. We have neither the resources nor the obligation to solve the federal government’s problem and foot the bill for the consequences of this Administration’s misguided actions.

The governors who signed on to the letter were:

  • Bill Lee of Tennessee
  • Kay Ivey of Alabama
  • Doug Ducey of Arizona
  • Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas
  • Brian Kemp of Georgia
  • Brad Little of Idaho
  • Eric Holcomb of Indiana
  • Kim Reynolds of Iowa
  • Tate Reeves of Mississippi
  • Mike Parson of Missouri
  • Greg Gianforte of Montana
  • Pete Ricketts of Nebraska
  • Chris Sununu of New Hampshire
  • Doug Burgum of North Dakota
  • Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma
  • Henry McMaster of South Carolina
  • Kristi Noem of South Dakota
  • Greg Abbott of Texas
  • Spencer Cox of Utah
  • Mark Gordon of Wyoming

The Biden administration’s culturally radical policies are beginning to provoke a national reaction. Former president Donald Trump’s immigration restriction advocacy helped put him over the top in 2020. And in 2022 and beyond, the issue will continue to be held as a priority by the Republican Party’s growing nationalist base.

Any Republican who runs away from immigration is setting himself up for a mediocre performance during election season.

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