Glenn Youngkin, in the silent phase of what he hopes will be an 11th-hour campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, sent 100 Virginia National Guard troops to Texas in May, a response, his office said at the time, to a request from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to address “continued instability along the U.S. border with Mexico, including the increase in supply of illegal drugs and human trafficking.”
What have Virginia taxpayers gotten back in return for the $2 million that we’ve had to fork out to fund the obvious political stunt?
Yeah, what you’d expect.
“The I-Team reviewed daily summaries of the guard’s nearly $2 million mission and found that, over roughly three weeks, they referred about 1,800 people to border authorities for illegal crossings and 145 people to police. But the reports also show the guard didn’t encounter fentanyl at any point and experienced what one commander described as a ‘weakening of the deterrent effect of our Soldiers and Airmen’ on migrants and alleged human traffickers.”
This was from a report by NBC Washington, which filed an open-records request to get access to invoices and daily situation reports detailing the troops’ July deployment to Eagle Pass, Texas.
The report paints the picture of a massive waste of the $2 million of our money that Youngkin is spending to make himself look good in the event that he decides to run for president.
Even what you’d think at first glance was the one positive result of the troop activity – the “about 1,800 people” referred to border authorities for “illegal crossings” – is a whole lotta nothing.
The guard troops don’t have authority to make arrests in these cases, so the sum of what they can do is track illegal crossings and refer suspected criminal activity to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
And on the fentanyl part of this: it’s really no surprise that our guard troops has been striking out there.
The NBC Washington report pointed to an NPR analysis of federal data in August that found nearly 90 percent of illicit fentanyl is seized at official border crossings, which is to say, not spots along the Rio Grande where the Virginia troops were deployed.
The bulk of fentanyl that enters the U.S., according to the NPR report, is smuggled by people legally authorized to enter the country, with more than half by U.S. citizens.
It’s probably worth it here to point back to what Youngkin had to say on this when he touted his move to send Virginia troops to Texas back in May.
“As leadership solutions at the federal level fall short, states are answering the call to secure our southern border, reduce the flow of fentanyl, combat human trafficking and address the humanitarian crisis,” Youngkin said. “Following a briefing from Gov. Abbott last week, Virginia is joining other states to deliver on his request for additional assistance. Given the intensive resource demands on Texas, the dangers posed by the fentanyl crisis, and impact of the border crisis on criminal activity to the Commonwealth, Virginia will do its part to assist the State of Texas’ efforts with the coordinated deployment of Virginia National Guard soldiers to assist in key aspects of their mission.”
The one tangible thing we got for our $2 million was a photo op for Youngkin in July, with this accompanying quote:
“As we continue to face this crisis, Virginia along with 12 other states have committed to assisting the State of Texas’ efforts in key aspects of their mission,” Youngkin said. “An open border is enabling the destruction of lives by the blight of illicit drugs and human trafficking. With an average of five Virginians dying a day from fentanyl overdoses, we have to go to work at the source.”
The only thing missing from the photo op was the Mission: Accomplished banner somewhere in the background.
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Chris Graham
