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Joyce Statement On DHS Request For More National Guard Troops

October 6, 2020

Congressman John Joyce (PA-13) today issued the following statement after it was reported on Monday evening that the Department of Homeland Security requested that the Pentagon authorize an additional 1,000 Texas National Guard troops to provide supplemental support at the southern border:

"The security and humanitarian crisis at the southern border and the impact it is having on the drug epidemic all across the country makes it a national issue that requires a national solution. Texas should not alone bear the responsibility to assist our Border Patrol agents, and other states should step up to the plate to provide these brave men and women with the additional manpower they need to perform their duties.

"For months I have been stressing the need for Pennsylvania's National Guard to lend a hand at the border, and I hope the Department of Homeland Security's latest request for additional National Guard troops will serve as evidence to Governor Wolf that this crisis is far from hyperbole and that he should reconsider his refusal to help us secure the border."

BACKGROUND

Given the gridlock facing Congress over the crisis at the southern border, Joyce in May led a group of five Pennsylvania lawmakers in a letter to Governor Tom Wolf to request that Pennsylvania's chief executive offer President Trump the support of the commonwealth's National Guard for the purposes of addressing the crisis on the southern border. Governor Wolf dismissed the request and his office called the crisis at the southern border "hyperbole."

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