South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem warned on Thursday that Mexican cartels are operating and "trafficking" children in her state.
Appearing on Fox News' Fox & Friends, Noem spoke about how immigration is affecting states across the U.S., including her own, and said that "it's because the cartels are here."
"They're not just at the border, they're here in South Dakota and they're bringing fentanyl in that's killing our kids and trafficking our children," she said.
Newsweek reached out to Noem's office via email for further comment.
The Context
Noem and 24 other Republican governors recently signed a letter criticizing President Joe Biden's handling of the U.S.-Mexico border crisis. The letter also expressed support for Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who has been in a dispute over border security with Biden and his administration.
"We stand in solidarity with our fellow Governor, Greg Abbott, and the State of Texas in utilizing every tool and strategy, including razor wire fences, to secure the border," the governors said in the letter. "We do it in part because the Biden Administration is refusing to enforce immigration laws already on the books and is illegally allowing mass parole across America of migrants who entered our country illegally."
What We Know
South Dakota's Legislature recently passed a bill recognizing the need to secure the U.S.-Mexico border and expressing South Dakota's support for border states.
"The national security crisis happening at the Southern Border affects every state, including South Dakota," Noem said in a statement announcing the legislation. "I am glad that the Legislature sees the severity of this matter and agrees that we need to take action to secure our borders."
Views
Biden has called on Congress to pass a proposed border security bill that he says would allow him to take the necessary measures to secure the border.
"The first bill I introduced was for a massive change in security at our border," Biden said at a South Carolina event this week. "Two months ago, my team began to work with a bipartisan group of senators to put together the toughest, smartest, fairest border security bill in history—the best one the nation has ever seen. It would finally provide the funding I requested early on and again in October to secure our borders."
Biden said the bill would give him "emergency authority to shut down the border until it can get back under control."
What's Next
The Senate has been working on negotiating the border security bill, but it is unclear how it will fare in the GOP-controlled House.
Ohio GOP Representative Jim Jordan said on Thursday morning that he'd like a line added to any proposed bill that states, "Time out on all of this, no money can be used to process or release into the country any new migrants."
Update 2/1/24, 9:38 a.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional information.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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