PIERRE, S.D. – Gov. Kristi Noem is deploying more South Dakota National Guard troops to the southern border.
Noem said she’s joining a dozen other Republican governors answering the call for help from Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
The governor plans on sending at least 50 troops.
This isn’t the first time Noem has sent troops south. In 2021, the governor deployed the National Guard to the U.S.–Mexico border at the request of the governors of Texas and Arizona.
In a press release announcing the deployment, Noem blamed President Biden for an increase in border encounters and human trafficking.
“Our National Guard soldiers are the best prepared to tackle this challenge,” Noem said. “They have proven that they can serve with excellence in a situation such as this, and I am confident that they will do so again.”
Noem was heavily criticized in 2021 when it was disclosed the state of South Dakota had accepted a private donation of $1 million from a Tennessee billionaire couple to send 50 South Dakota National Guard troops to the border. At the time, Noem argued she was saving taxpayer money.
Since then, Congress banned using private funds for interstate National Guard deployments, according to the AP.
This most recent move by Noem is being funded by the state’s Emergency and Disaster Fund, a revelation that caused a top-ranking legislator to criticize the plan and question its legality.
Noem’s spokesman, Ian Fury, did not provide a cost estimate for the deployment, but told South Dakota Searchlight via text message Thursday evening, “All costs will be paid out of the Emergency & Disaster Fund.”
Lee Schoenbeck, a Watertown Republican and president pro tempore of the state Senate, said securing the border is a federal responsibility. He said Noem is acting on a “political agenda unrelated to South Dakota issues” and violating the trust placed in the executive branch to spend the state’s money as intended.
“She cannot use those funds for that,” Schoenbeck said Thursday night. “She needs to follow the law.”
A South Dakota Searchlight review of budget documents, public testimony, legislation, and state laws pertaining to the fund revealed a common thread: references to the fund being intended for expenses within the state’s borders.
According to the recommended budget Noem sent to legislators in December, the fund is for emergencies and disasters “in South Dakota.” Noem asked legislators to put $2,524,560 into the fund.
The House Committee on Appropriations filed a bill to appropriate precisely that amount in January. Angela Lemieux, of the Department of Public Safety, testified during the bill’s first public hearing later that month.
“The fund covers costs for emergencies and disasters that occur in the state,” Lemieux told the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Appropriations.
She said the money is used to help communities recover from natural disasters, and for grants that help communities prepare for future disasters.
