PHOENIX — As border security continues to disintegrate, Governor Doug Ducey and 25 fellow Republican governors are reaching out to the Biden administration asking for “an urgent meeting with President Joe Biden to find meaningful solutions to the worst border crisis in more than two decades.”
In a letter released on Monday, the governors say they are “seeking an open and constructive dialogue regarding border enforcement on behalf of U.S. citizens in our states and all those hoping to become U.S. citizens. We must end the current crisis and return to border operations that respect the laws of our land and the lives of all people, including those in our states looking to the federal government to enforce and protect our nation’s borders.”
The governors’ letter can be found here.
The governors requested to meet President Biden within 15 days.
In Arizona, the Yuma Sector Border Patrol has experienced a more than 900 percent increase in apprehensions compared to last year and the Tucson Sector Border Patrol has experienced a more than 200 percent increase in apprehensions.
Border apprehensions overall are up nearly 500 percent compared to last year, totaling over 1.3 million people, more than the populations of nine U.S. states. Approximately 9,700 illegal apprehensions have prior criminal convictions. Cartels and traffickers are making $14 million a day moving people illegally across the border. Nearly 10,500 pounds of fentanyl have been seized this fiscal year, more than the last three years combined. To put that into context, only 2 milligrams of fentanyl can prove fatal, meaning that this amount is enough to kill seven times the U.S. population.
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, who signed the letter says “the crisis at the border does not stay at the border.” In Iowa, law enforcement officials are seeing an uptick in major narcotics crimes. Iowa law enforcement seized roughly 6,136 grams of fentanyl between January and June of this year, which marks a 1,070 percent increase from the same period last year. Methamphetamine seizures are also on the rise, increasing 122 percent in the first half of this year, where officers seized 133,444 grams.
In response what they say is the failure of the Biden Administration to act, earlier this year Governors Ducey and Abbott requested assistance. Reynolds responded, sending 28 Iowa Department of Public Safety law enforcement officers to assist the Texas Department of Public Safety with four key mission tasks including traffic duties, humanitarian efforts, tactical operations and human smuggling operations.
The governors say the attempted border crossings pose a serious threat to the health and safety of migrants and Americans, and it can put a tremendous amount of stress on law enforcement and border security officials. A few weeks ago, a mother and her 10-year-old daughter who crossed the border seeking asylum were found dead from heat exposure in the Yuma desert. Additionally, just last week, Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents apprehended a group of 140 migrants attempting to illegally cross the border.
Ducey and other governors have taken action at the state level to address the border crisis, but their abilities are constitutionally limited as implementation of our nation’s immigration laws lies in the hands of the President of the United States.
In August, Ducey called for the resignation of Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas following his explosive leaked comments on the border crisis. Governor Ducey said in response, “This administration has completely lost control of the border … A defeatist is not what we need when it comes to fighting for border security.”