LANSING, Mich. — A West Michigan member of the State House is urging Governor Gretchen Whitmer to take action at the nation’s southern border.
Representative Bryan Posthumus (R-90th District) called on the governor to deploy Michigan’s National Guard to help Texas fight the expected surge of illegal border crossings.
“It’s not unprecedented that Michigan send their National Guard troops outside of the state of Michigan,” Rep. Posthumus told FOX 17 Thursday. “Right now, we have National Guard troops on the Russian border. I think it’s more important that the National Guard be protecting our nation’s border as opposed to fighting in Russia.”
The request comes as the Biden Administration is set to slash Title 42 at 11:59 p.m. Thursday.
Title 42 allows border patrol officials to turn away migrants swiftly at the US-Mexico border.
The pandemic-era restriction to curb migration often took away the chance for migrants to claim asylum.
The expiration of Title 42 already is threatening chaos as tens of thousands of migrants are estimated to be gathered at the border in anticipation.
“President Biden himself…said that there is going to be chaos on the border as a result of Title 42 going away. Those are his words, not my words,” Rep. Posthumus said. “And the problem is, you know, Biden’s had a long time. President Biden’s had a long time to plan ahead for this, you know, he had time to do his homework. But his border policies are just wholly insufficient and so this is a problem that every state in the country is going to have to deal with and so I think Michigan should be part of the solution.
The Biden Administration plans to enforce new, strict policy measures amid the ending of Title 42.
A new asylum rule, that aims to bar migrants who passed through another country from seeking asylum in the United States, goes into effect this week.
This rule makes migrants ineligible from seeking asylum in the U.S. if they did not first seek refuge in a country they went through, such as Mexico, on their way to the border.
“We are looking at immigration all wrong. We have to look at immigration from the standpoint of it needs to be made substantially easier to come here legally and substantially more difficult to come here illegally,” Rep. Posthumus added. “Sending our National Guard to help develop that process is [why] I think we should be doing that.”
FOX 17 contacted Governor Whitmer's office Thursday which said they did send Michigan National Guard troops to the southern border region back in 2021.
