Governor Jim Pillen is sending two more contingents of Nebraskans to Texas next month to help that state in its border enforcement efforts.
Pillen said last night that 35 members of the Nebraska National Guard will leave early in the month for a 90-day deployment to Eagle Pass while 10 members of the State Patrol will leave in mid-month for 2 weeks
Both groups will work alongside members of their Texas counterparts in the Texas National Guard and Texas Dept of Public Safety. All those being sent from Nebraska are volunteers
Pillen sent two separate deployments of Guard personnel and state troopers to the southern border in Texas last year at a cost of nearly $1 million.
As he did at that time, Pillen defends the new deployment as a necessary step to address an “ongoing crisis” at the US-Mexico border.
Repeating a phrase used over the past year by virtually every Republican governor, Pillen said in a written statement that “Every state is a border state, and what happens along our nation’s southern border affects us right here.
Pillen also said the skills of those he’s sending “will help stem the tide of illegal immigration and keep deadly drugs off our streets.”
Pillen and other Republican leaders blame “lax federal border policies” for a rise in illegal immigration and increased drug tracking.
He cites an 83% increase in the number of fentanyl pills seized last year by the Omaha Division of the DEA, although the federal agency did not say where the fentanyl came from or if it was connected to illegal entries into the United States.