COLUMBUS, Ohio — Gov. Mike DeWine on Thursday authorized the deployment of 14 members of the Ohio State Highway Patrol to Texas, where they will assist in dealing with the recent influx of migrants at the United States-Mexico border.
DeWine's office says the move comes following a request from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who wrote a letter to fellow governors claiming a "surge in illegal immigration and transnational criminal activity" within his state after the Biden administration lifted Title 42. Besides Ohio, chief executives from Idaho, Florida, and other Republican-led states have sent reinforcements to Texas.
This marks the second time in two years DeWine has sent troopers to the border, also sending 14 in July of 2021. During that time, the governor also deployed hundreds of Ohio National Guard members to the Lone Star State, and the agency has maintained a "continuous presence" there ever since.
"What happens at the southern border of the United States impacts Ohio," DeWine said two years ago. "I can tell you, from eight years as the attorney general of this state, that the vast majority, almost all the drugs that are coming into the state of Ohio come across the southern border. So we have a real interest in securing the southern border."
Just like 2021, OSHP employees in Texas will not be making arrests, with their main duties instead involving surveilance of the border. The assignment is expected to last roughly two weeks.
The lifting of Title 42 last month marked the end of a Trump administration policy in place since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. It placed new restrictions on asylum seekers and allowed border agents to turn such people away to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, forcing them to remain in Mexico and often denying their asylum cases.
While critics of lifting the policy (particularly Republicans) initially predicted bedlam, statistics tell a slightly different story, with the U.S. Border Patrol reporting a 50% drop in border crossings just three days after the period leading up to Title 42's end. The Biden administration has encouraged migrants to avoid the border and instead attempt to seek asylum through other means, such as online.