Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb (R) is refusing to send law enforcement officers to Arizona and Texas amid the nation’s ongoing border crisis after sending hundreds of United States National Guardsmen to President Joe Biden’s inauguration, Breitbart News has exclusively learned.
In June, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) asked states to help them with the wave of illegal immigration pouring into their states as a result of Biden’s massive Catch and Release operation and elimination of border controls.
Holcomb sent a statement to Indiana’s congressional delegation, writing that he would not be sending law enforcement officers to aid Texas and Arizona because, in part, the mission is “short-term and non-reimbursable assignment.”
Holcomb’s statement, exclusively obtained by Breitbart News, reads below:
It is highly unfortunate that border states are being forced to divert their own critical resources toward what is clearly a federal responsibility. Indiana has time and time again answered the call to assist states in need including now assisting on the southern border with 123 of our Indiana National Guardsman in and around Chula Vista, California tasked with border protection and monitoring.
Our two largest enforcement agencies, Indiana State Police and [the Department of Natural Resources’s] Law Enforcement Division, are currently in their heavy season as it relates to the significant uptick in drug interdictions, safety on our roads, as well as our response efforts in our parks and bodies of water during these summer months.
I appreciate the efforts that all our southern border partners are doing to protect the border and serve our country’s citizens.
Currently, due to my direct responsibility to the taxpayers of Indiana and the focus on the issues I stated above, I am unable to take additional personnel and law enforcement officers off their current state duties and mission to participate in this important yet short-term and non-reimbursable assignment.
Holcomb’s mention that 123 of Indiana’s National Guardsmen are currently deployed in Chula Vista, California is eclipsed by the fact that he deployed 625 National Guardsmen to Biden’s presidential inauguration in January.
By early March, more than 250 of those National Guardsmen were still deployed in Washington, DC, despite their original mission, providing security for Biden’s inauguration, having ended.
Already, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts (R), Idaho Gov. Brad Little (R), South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R), Arkansas Asa Hutchinson (R), Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R), and Ohio Gov. Mark DeWine (R) have sent law enforcement to Texas and Arizona to aid them with the border crisis.
In May, more than 172,000 border crossers were apprehended at the border — a nearly 700 percent increase in illegal immigration compared to the same time last year when former President Donald Trump implemented fierce border controls.
Current projections predict that about 1.2 million border crossers will be encountered at the border this year with potentially hundreds-of-thousands more crossing illegally, undetected by federal immigration officials.
Holcomb’s office did not provide Breitbart News with a comment in time for this publication.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.