Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds announced on July 12 that Iowa will fund troopers sent 920 miles to the south to aid the state of Texas in addressing the crisis at its border with Mexico.
ABC News reported that Reynolds, a Republican, said Iowa will fund the 29 troopers sent to the border, promising Texas that it does not have to pay the Hawkeye State back.
Iowa joins a cadre of Republican-majority states helping Texas solve what appears to be an albatross for President Joe Biden's administration.
Kim Reynolds, Donald Trump
ABC News reported that Iowa’s contingent comprises of members of an Iowa State Patrol tactical team that responds to high-risk situations, command staff and an investigator.
Governors such as Pete Ricketts, of Nebraska, and Kristi Noem, of South Dakota, will also render assistance, ABC News reported.
When asked who would foot the bill for the deployment, Reynolds replied that Iowa will assume responsibility for the costs.
“We sat down with the commissioner before we sent them down to make sure we felt that they could not only handle the safety of the citizens of the state of Iowa but have the resources to go down there, and they assured us that they did,” she told ABC News.
Iowa Dept. of Public Safety spokeswoman Debbie McClung made assurances that her agency will still be able to fulfill its duties and responsibilities since the deployment involves 5.3% of the department's officers.
The New York Post reported that the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol nabbed 180,000 migrants at the southern border two months ago, the highest in more than two decades.
The publication also reported that a poll of 907 adults taken at the end of last month revealed 51% of them believe Biden is mishandling the border situation as opposed to 33% who feel he is doing a good job.
“Things have changed so quickly and so dramatically under the Biden administration," Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, told the New York Post. “It’s been amazing and disastrous.”
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