Gov. Mike Parson plans to send as many as 200 Missouri National Guard members and 22 Missouri State High Patrol troopers to support Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star mission.

Launched in March 2021, Operation Lone Star is a Texas initiative aimed at preventing illegal immigration at the nation’s southern border. Parson, who visited the border at Eagle Pass, Texas on Feb. 4, submitted a $2.3 million supplemental budget request to fund the operation.

“The crisis at the Southern Border is fueling the fentanyl crisis here in our state,” Parson said in a statement. “Missourians are dying; families are being ripped apart; communities are being destroyed, and Missouri children are falling victim. It all stems from the Biden Administration’s reckless, irresponsible, and failing open-border policies. With our Southern Border wide open, every state is now a border state.”

Through the recently issued Executive Order 24-03, Missouri’s National Guard troops will be dispersed on a rotating basis of about 30 days. The mission begins on March 10, with the primary objective for these troopers being the construction of physical barriers, with security patrols when needed.

All members of the Missouri Highway Patrol who are participating in the effort are doing so on a voluntary basis. These troopers will begin active support on March 1, which includes helping with traffic enforcement, criminal interdiction, crime prevention and other duties.

“Our current operation plan activates this mission for 90 days,” Parson said. “However, we will continuously work with Texas to evaluate needed support moving forward.”

In December 2023, more than 302,000 border crossings were recorded just that month by the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. In fiscal year 2023, more than 2 million encounters were recorded. Since 2021, nearly 10 million people have entered the U.S. illegally, though not all at the southern border.

There were 27,000 pounds of fentanyl seized by the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol in 2023, with 98.9% of that taken by authorities at the southern border. Some of this was confiscated at legal ports of entry, but the staggering amounts of the deadly drug entering the country is even more reason to send aid, according to Parson.

“Of course, where we have armed patrols, inspecting people and transports as well as legitimate barriers to entry, we’re going to discover and seize items that should not be coming into our country,” Parson said. “It’s actually quite an argument for the need to expand those procedures and secure our border.” 

In 2023, the Missouri State Highway Patrol seized almost 12,500 grams of fentanyl. Fentanyl overdoses have increased by nearly 135% in Missouri since 2017. In 2022, 43 children in the state died from fentanyl exposure. 

“The more illegal crossings we could stop and the fentanyl we can seize in Texas means less Missouri families torn apart and less Missouri children losing their lives,” Parson said.

More: Missouri lawmakers hope to crack down on illegal immigration but advocates raise concerns

The Missouri Democratic Party issued a statement criticizing Parson’s executive order, with Missouri Democratic Party Executive Director Matthew Patterson calling it “political theater,” and pointing out how Republicans in the U.S. Congress quickly denounced a bipartisan immigration reform package.

“Governor Parson’s decision to double down his political theater at the southern border instead of urging his Republican colleagues in Congress to support the bipartisan border agreement is not surprising but is deeply shameful,” Patterson said. “Missouri Republicans have demonstrated time after time that they will always choose to play political games over doing their jobs no matter who is put at risk.”

Missouri State House Minority Whip Ashley Aune joined Patterson in these criticisms, expressing frustration with “self-serving politicians playing political games,” and urged Parson to encourage Republican legislators to focus on governing Missouri rather than scoring campaign points.

“The bipartisan bill that was blocked by Republicans in Congress would have addressed this crisis, but Missouri Republicans would rather send Missouri resources to another state than do their jobs,” Aune said. “To these politicians, our pain is their political strategy, and America will continue to feel the consequences of their dysfunction as long as it scores them political points.”

Parson, however, expected to receive criticism for sending resources to the southern border, acknowledging them preemptively in his announcement Tuesday afternoon.

“Critics will say we have our own battles within our own Missouri borders,” Parson said. “And while that is certainly true, we would much rather do what we can to fight this fight on the southern border than let it take root in our own backyard.”