West Virginia National Guard troops sent to assist Texas at Southern border – WV MetroNews

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Around 50 troops with the West Virginia National Guard are now taking off for Texas to assist with Operation Lone Star.

Governor Jim Justice joined the troops at the base to help send them off Monday for a mission launched by Texas Governor Greg Abbott in a response to control increased illegal immigration at the Southern border.

“Every single day that more and more people cross that border, more and more potential bad things happen to West Virginia,” Justice said. “We’re a long ways away but we should step up and do our part.”

Abbott initially launched Operation Lone Star in March 2021, but as of May of this year, the Texas Governor issued a disaster declaration that now covers 48 counties along or near the U.S.–Mexico border.

This declaration prompted the Department of Public Safety to strengthen enforcements preventing all criminal activity along the border, including criminal trespassing, smuggling and human trafficking. West Virginia National Guard Adjutant General Major Bill Crane said this also includes enforcement on the prevention of deadly drugs such as Fentanyl that’s coming into the country and further affecting the substance abuse crisis the Mountain State continues to face of its own.

“There’s absolutely something that needs to be done to ensure that those drugs are not coming across the border, and so I think the governor is doing what he needs to do to support Governor Abbott,” said Crane.

Monday’s deployment ceremony of West Virginia National Guard Soldiers and Airmen comes after a letter Abbott sent on May 16 requesting fellow governors across the U.S. to send support under the Emergency Management Assistance Compact, a mutual aid agreement among states that enables them to deploy resources during a time of disaster or emergency.

On May 31, Justice approved the troops to be deployed to Texas for up to 30 days to help the cause. Sargent Ryan Hopkins who’s been in the guard for 14 years and is being sent as a Non-Commissioned Officer in Charge was happy to be fulfilling the duty.

“I think one of the beauties of the National Guard is that we do have the State Mission meaning that we can support the state and I think that’s so unique to us,” Hopkins said. “I love not only helping our state but also helping other states and supporting in their missions and just trying to accomplish a mission at any rate.”

All of the nearly 54 troops being deployed are volunteers. They will work alongside the Texas National Guard and law enforcement to “detect, deter, and interdict transnational criminal activity.”

“We’ll have access to reach out to the border patrol, they’re the ones who actually have to manage taking those folks who have come across the border illegally and handle them however they process them,” Crane said.

National Guard Captain Zackary Pingley also serves as a law enforcement officer in the state and he said the way they will be dealing with the handling of dangerous substances is similar to what officers do in the field here at home.

“I always take precautions doing law enforcement stuff here of wearing gloves and that’s what we’re doing with our guys there is taking the necessary precautions,” he said.

Pingley said he just got back from the border a couple of weeks ago and said they were asked to not touch any of the hundreds of clothing spread out across it for fear it might contain Fentanyl. He said it’s all of the local communities he wants to protect from such dangers.

“For most of us here we kind of see the big major cities having issues with illegal immigration and so we would like to do something to help prevent that from happening to the smaller communities that we have here in West Virginia,” Pingley said.

Crane said this mission does not affect any of the other National Guard members already deployed to the state’s regional jails during ongoing staffing shortages, as well as communities who could potentially need help in the event of another severe weather storm.

“We have 6,500 folks that we can draw from and I feel confident that we can meet every mission the governor has asked us to do,” said Crane. “Another thing to think about as we’re doing these things is that there’s a lot of training value of doing these missions, so it helps them to be better prepared to do other missions that may be asked of them.”

The troops start moving out to the mission Tuesday.