COLUMBIA, S.C. — Gov. Henry McMaster says he is ordering members of the South Carolina National Guard to Texas at the U.S.-Mexico border.
McMaster said he made the order at the request of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott after the expiration of the Title 42 program, implemented in the Trump administration, which allowed the U.S. to turn away migrants seeking asylum to stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
The program lapsed in the Biden administration as the country’s public health emergency ended.
“The safety and security of South Carolinians require that we stop the drug cartels, criminals and terrorists from entering our country to peddle their poison,” McMaster said in a statement Wednesday.
The governor’s office said in a release Wednesday that the deployment is still in the planning phase, and details, including the number of troops who will go, will be finalized in the coming weeks with a deployment goal by July 1.