TUCSON— Today, Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva issued the following statement after comments by Governor Doug Ducey alluded to a potential national guard deployment to the ​Arizona-Mexico border to deal with the humanitarian situation at the border:

“The humanitarian situation that families and children at the border are experiencing warrants a comprehensive humanitarian response, and another troop deployment is not the answer. Instead of highlighting the real issues facing our border like a gutted asylum system and long-running backlogs, Governor Ducey has ripped a page straight out of the Republican playbook and threatened to ​once again send in the troops. This will not solve the backlogs, will not help border communities, and most importantly, will not ensure the proper treatment and care of asylum seeking adults and unaccompanied children. We’ve seen this before with past troop deployments during the Trump Administration. Sending in more troops will only ​further militarize border communities and provide a military solution to a humanitarian challenge.”

Rep. Grijalva has led efforts in Congress to condemn troop deployments that began during the Trump Administration. Most recently, he called on President Biden to withdraw troops and their equipment still stationed along the border.

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