Gov. Kemp offers to send troops to Texas border amid Abbott standoff with Biden administration

ATLANTA - Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp offered to aid Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s effort to control illegal crossings on the U.S.-Mexico border, as fellow Republican Abbott pursues a showdown with the Biden administration over immigration enforcement.

Kemp held a press conference Tuesday afternoon as both chambers of Georgia’s Republican-led Legislature pushed through identically worded resolutions condemning President Joe Biden’s border policy and saying they back any effort by Kemp to "allocate resources and assistance to the protection of the southern border."

The Georgia Senate voted 31-15 for its resolution Monday, and a House committee approved its version Friday.

The sharply partisan resolutions were accompanied by Republican talking points that characterized anyone who crosses the border illegally as a criminal, even those seeking asylum from persecution at home and concluding that many are drug traffickers or potential terrorists. The measures are progressing in an election year not only for the president, but for all of Georgia’s 236 legislative seats as well.

Kemp agrees to send troops to Southern border

Kemp announced he would send more Georgia National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas. Kemp last deployed troops there in 2019. Garrison Douglas, a spokesperson for Kemp, said 29 guard members remain deployed performing missions that include aerial surveillance.

"After record breaking numbers of illegal crossings at the border and seizures of dangerous drugs, weapons and violent criminals. No one complains there's not a crisis at our Southern Border. And thanks to the failures of the White House. Now every state in the country is a border state," said Kemp.

Georgia's governor was one of 13 Republican governors who joined Abbott at Eagle Pass, Texas, on Feb. 4. Abbott has been locked in a standoff with the Biden administration after the state began denying access to U.S. Border Patrol agents at a park on the edge of the Rio Grande in the Texas border town.

Kemp, who has a history of conflict with former President Donald Trump, continues to keep his distance from the Republican frontrunner while backing other Republicans and opposing Biden. But several other Georgia Republicans made clear in debate Monday that what they wanted was a return to Trump’s specific border policies.

"We’re condemning President Biden that he took back and did a reversal in regard to what President Trump passed into law by executive order," said Sen. Majority Leader Steve Gooch, a Daholonega Republican. "What we’ve said is we want that executive order reinstated."

Democrats attacked Trump and Republicans during debate for rejecting a border security plan developed in the U.S. Senate by negotiators including Republican U.S. Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma.

"This list of opportunities to secure the border thrown in the trash can by congressional Republicans is long," said state Sen. Elena Parent, an Atlanta Democrat. "But none of this list compares to the most recent debacle we have witnessed."

Republicans also made clear that the resolution was an election-year messaging exercise. Georgia's senators, in particular, have debated a clutch of partisan measures in recent weeks aimed at pleasing Republicans and riling Democrats.

"We’re not going to pass a bill today that is going to move the needle in a large way," Gooch said. "What we are going to do today is take a position on this issue."

How many Georgia National Guardsmen will be deployed to Texas?

Gov. Kemp said there were just under 30 guardsmen in Texas already supporting state officials in border enforcement. 

As dozens of Republican elected officials stood behind him on the stairs of the South Wing of the Georgia Capitol on Tuesday afternoon, Kemp told reporters an additional 15 to 20 guardsmen would be deployed to help build a forward base of operations to handle the humanitarian crisis.

"The crisis on the border is a national problem, and it demands a national solution, but if the Biden administration continues to fail the American people, then we have no choice, no choice but to step in," said Kemp.

Kemp said those being deployed would consist mainly of engineers and those capable of logical, structural, and mechanical support. They would not have arresting powers, but would be in support of the Texas officials who could exercise that power.

"We will send reinforcements to Texas this spring, who will assist with the construction of a command post on the border with Mexico," Kemp said.

There is no timeline of when that support team would be deployed or from which of the 79 hometown armories or six air reserve locations.

There are more than 11,100 citizen-soldiers in the Georgia Army National Guard and another 3,000 in the Georgia Air National Guard. 

Georgia has had troops at the Southern Border since 2019.

Georgia isn't alone in offering help. Other states, including Florida, have also pledged to send additional National Guard troops to Texas to help. 

Republican governors call on tighter border security

Georgia is at least the third Republican-led state where lawmakers in recent weeks have introduced resolutions backing calls to send more National Guard troops to support Abbott, after Oklahoma and Tennessee.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced last month he would send hundreds of additional guard members. The state has sent more than 1,000 guard members, state troopers and other officers to the Texas border since last May, according to the Florida Division of Emergency Management.

Georgia Republicans echoed their party’s national claims that Biden needs no help from Congress to control the border and that Democrats had unified control of Congress for Biden’s first two years. Democrats, meanwhile, said they support some increased controls at the border, showing how the issue has shifted, but said Georgia lawmakers have little control over the issue.

"This resolution is politics for politics’ sake," said Senate Democratic Whip Harold Jones II, of Augusta.

Democrats respond to Gov. Kemp sending troops to the Southern Border

Kemp said his tour of the Southern Border impacted his decision to send reinforcements.

"This is not a partisan issue. You heard the numbers for yourself. This is a public safety and humanitarian crisis caused by Joe Biden’s failure to act," Kemp said. "The crisis is ruining lives, families, and whole communities overrun by the challenges it brings. Well, while Joe Biden may not be willing to act, we will."

Georgia Democrats rebutted the claims the move was non-partisan and said the governor should be more focused on what is going on his own state.

"It’s another disappointing day at the Capitol to hear the governor, our governor, talk about border safety when the issue should be the safety of the citizens who are currently here," said state Rep. James Beverly, the House minority leader. "And the issues that are coming into the state of Georgia: poor health care, material mortality, we did a little bit with that, you know gun safety, stuff that we should be doing in Georgia. He’s talking about deploying troops, building a tower, to do what? It’s unfortunate."

The Associated Press contributed to this report