Noem says National Guard deployment to southern border will begin next month

Gov. Kristi Noem said during a press conference Monday that a previously announced South Dakota National Guard deployment to the border will begin Sept. 1. 

Noem made the comments during a livestreamed appearance at the border with fellow Republican governors Greg Abbott of Texas, Kim Reynolds of Iowa, Jim Pillen of Nebraska and Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma. The governors reiterated their support for Texas’ Operation Lone Star, an effort to strengthen border protections beyond the actions taken by the federal government.

Noem said the Biden administration’s mismanagement of the border is allowing illegal drugs to flow across.

“What we’re literally witnessing is a warzone,” Noem said. “I recognize what we are facing, that this really is a war. It’s a war for our country and our federal laws and our constitution. They are threatening our sovereignty and the cartels are out for blood.”

A Biden administration spokesperson responded to South Dakota Searchlight by saying border encounters this July were lower than in July 2022.

“This administration has led the largest expansion of lawful pathways in decades and we are committed to building a humane, safe, and orderly immigration system,” the spokesperson said in an email. “Individuals who do not use the lawful pathways we’ve made available will continue to be presumed ineligible for asylum and they will be subject to prompt removal, a minimum five-year ban on reentry, and potential criminal prosecution.”

The spokesman criticized actions by Abbott, including the placement of buoys in a waterway, which the spokesperson said “make it hard for the men and women of Border Patrol to do their jobs of securing the border, and put migrants and border agents in danger.” 

In June, Noem disclosed plans to send at least 50 South Dakota National Guard members to the border to assist Texas. She plans to pay for the deployment with state emergency and disaster funds. A previous South Dakota National Guard deployment to the border was funded partly by a private donor, and another previous deployment that was requested by the federal government was federally funded.

On Monday, Noem drew attention to challenges South Dakota faces, alleging that cartels sending drugs across the nation’s southern border are operating freely on tribal reservations in the state. South Dakota’s jurisdictional limitations, she said, hinder the state’s ability to intervene. 

“The vast majority of the drugs in the Midwest are coming right through South Dakota on these reservations that I cannot do anything about,” Noem said. “The cartels are set up in South Dakota, too. That’s what this country needs to realize.”