Rep. Adam Smith, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, called South Dakota’s use of private funds to send National Guard members to the southern border “unbelievably dangerous.”
The Washington Democrat said Gov. Kristi Noem’s decision to use an unspecified donation from Republican megadonors Willis and Reba Johnson to fund the deployment of up to 50 National Guard troops was “completely wrong,” though he doesn’t know if it broke any laws.
“Look, this is unbelievably dangerous to think that rich people can start using the U.S. military to advance their objectives independent of what the commander in chief and the secretary of defense think they ought to be doing,” he said Wednesday. “It is completely wrong. Now, I have not closely looked at the law to figure out whether or not definitively it is illegal, but if it isn’t illegal, it ought to be illegal.”
NEW INCREASE IN MIGRANT CHILDREN AT BORDER FIVE MONTHS INTO BIDEN TENURE
Ian Fury, Noem’s communications director, pointed the Washington Examiner to laws SDCL 5-23-12 and SDCL-48A-36 regarding the legality question. The first law allows the governor to receive a gift, including money, even if there is a “pre-existing condition” as long as it is in “the best interest of the state,” while the latter specifically allows the governor to do it should it be in the name of “emergency management.”
“This is the National Guard. This is the U.S. military being called up,” Smith said. “Granted, they’re being called up under state authority, but this is still — this is not a private militia, and it should not be used as a private militia for any purpose. So I think this is an incredibly important story — bizarre, odd, yes, but not one to be ignored and something that we need to stand up against as quickly as possible.”
Smith isn’t inclined to call hearings about the topic because “they don’t always solve problems,” he said, but he left the possibility open for them. He also said he is looking for an explanation from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on the matter.
“If a hearing could be helpful, yes, but the one thing we are going to do on the Armed Services Committee is we are going to put pressure on the secretary of defense and everyone else to say, ‘This should not be happening. How do we make it stop?'” he continued.
Noem, in announcing the deployment Tuesday, accused the Biden administration of failing to keep “the American people safe.”
“The border is a national security crisis that requires the kind of sustained response only the National Guard can provide,” her statement said. “We should not be making our communities less safe by sending our police or Highway Patrol to fix a long-term problem President Biden’s Administration seems unable or unwilling to solve. My message to Texas is this: help is on the way.”
Nebraska and Florida sent officials, state troopers, and local police officers to Texas in June after Govs. Greg Abbott of Texas and Doug Ducey of Arizona asked the other 48 governors to consider sending police to help overwhelmed local and federal departments.
Law enforcement officers, both the ones from states not along the border and those who are, will have broader policing authorities while at the border. They will have the power to arrest noncitizens who come across the border on trespassing charges and human smuggling charges.
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Normally, federal authorities such as the Border Patrol are the only officials who can arrest people for immigration offenses, but the two governors expanded arrest authorities by declaring a disaster and emergency. The military does not have the authority to make arrests.
Illegal immigration at the southern border in March hit the highest level in 21 years. Those levels rose in April and in May as more than 180,000 people attempted to enter the country between ports of entry or were denied at those border crossings.
