Twenty-five Republican Governors on Tuesday sent a letter to President Joe Biden requesting information on how the crisis at the southern border is impacting every state.
The crisis at the southern border extends to every state. I'm leading a 25-state effort to press @JoeBiden for honest and detailed information on who is entering the country illegally and where they're relocating. pic.twitter.com/j4NVuKdI7x
— Governor Greg Gianforte (@GovGianforte) September 19, 2023
The letter, led by Montana Governor Greg Gianforte, called on the Biden administration to immediately relay “accurate, detailed, and thorough data to the states about who is crossing the Southern border illegally, where they are relocating, how the federal government is processing their asylum applications, and whether they are being deported.”
The group argued they cannot fulfill their “fundamental duties” as governors to protect the citizens of their states without such information, adding, “As we have made clear repeatedly, every state is now a border state.”
Citing the approximate 5.8 million illegal crossings at the southern border since Biden assumed office, with an estimated 1.6 million crossers having evaded apprehension, the governors argued, “States cannot afford to respond to a challenge of such magnitude while the federal government continues to turn a blind eye.”
“As a result of your policies which incentivize illegal immigration, our states are carrying the burden of both the years-long surge in illegal border crossings and cartels’ coordinated trafficking of drugs and human beings,” the group of governors wrote. “States are on the front lines, working around-the-clock responding to the effects of this crisis: shelters are full, food pantries empty, law enforcement strained, and aid workers exhausted.”
“States are forced to provide financial, educational, and medical support to migrants entering our country illegally–support that is skyrocketing in cost due to record inflation and the unprecedented influx of migrants into our states. The financial impact on the states is staggering, and it is our hardworking citizens who shoulder that burden,” the governors added.
In addition to the Biden administration’s immediate response to their request for data, the governors also request similar information annually as “the crisis at the southern border continues.”
– – –
Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
