LUKEVILLE, Ariz. — Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs launched "Operation SECURE" Friday to offer additional state resources to the recently closed Lukeville Point of Entry.
Operation SECURE, which stands for Safety, Enforcement, Coordination and Uniform Response, will create a new Border Security Office within the Department of Homeland Security. It is expected to serve as a hub of coordination for border security operations to ensure local, state, and federal assets are being properly leveraged.
Additionally, if the Biden-Harris administration does not reopen the port of entry, the operation will mobilize up to $5 million for the National Guard to support the Department of Public Safety and local law enforcement agencies along the southern border, including fentanyl interdiction efforts.
According to a release from Gov. Hobbs, she has also written a letter to President Biden asking that the 243 National Guard members in the Tucson area be used to support reopening the Lukeville Point of Entry.
"With the launch of Operation SECURE, the State of Arizona is doing everything we can to secure the border, but we are at a breaking point," Hobbs said. "We need the federal government to step up, do its job, and bring security and order to our border.”
Hobbs is expected to travel to Lukeville on Saturday. The governor's "urgent request" to the president can be read below:
The U.S.-Mexico border crossing in Arizona closed entirely Monday due to the amount of people crossing from Mexico into the United States. Authorities needed to divert resources to other areas of the border to help with the surge.
“The decision to close the Lukeville Port of Entry has led to an unmitigated crisis in the area and put Arizona’s safety and commerce at risk,” said Hobbs.
Lukeville is in the Border Patrol's Tucson sector, which was the single busiest region for border crossings in October. Staffing cuts to areas that process legal trade and travel are the latest response to demands for processing people who cross the border illegally, often to seek asylum, the Associated Press reported.
Hobbs also billed the federal government $512,529,333 in reimbursements for ongoing border operations resulting from the closure.
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