Caption: Mona Miller of Branson, Mo., cheers at the Take Our Border Back Convoy rally at One Shot Distillery and Brewery in Dripping Springs Texas on Thursday, Feb. 1 (Austin American Statesman photo)
TOPEKA – Leavenworth Republican Representative Pat Proctor will carry a resolution to the Kansas house on Tuesday, calling on Governor Laura Kelly to make a public show support for Texas governor Greg Abbott and his efforts to secure the southern border up to and including committing Kansas National Guard troops.
Proctor, who represents Kansas 41st District, said in a Facebook post over the weekend he will deliver the resolution at 11:00 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 6. A support rally is planned for 10 a.m. Tuesday on the south steps on the Kansas capital to preface the resolution’s introduction and debate.
Governor Kelly has claimed the Border situation is a federal issue, and Kansas National Guardsmen are subject to a national call-up if the president deems necessary. The governor has authority to mobilize the state’s militia for internal state emergencies and also to dispatch them to other states. The governor also has broad authority to use the “bully pulpit” of the office for a verbal commitment of support to the integrity of the border and to pledge that Kansas guardsmen stand ready to assist.
Biden’s abandonment of the “Remain In Mexico” policy on day one of his administration is broadly blamed for stimulating a massive movement across the U.S. southern border by an estimated 10 million illegal immigrants, and the onslaught has brought the federal government and the State of Texas into conflict. The most recent face-off involves a federal assertion that border U.S. Border Patrol agents have the right to remove barriers and barbed wire placed in the Rio Grande River and elsewhere along the border by law officers and National Guardsmen acting on state authority.
Large numbers of those illegal migrants have been directed to the country’s larger cities which have proclaimed themselves “Sanctuary Cities” for migrants – Jurisdictions which refuse to cooperate with Federal immigration authorities and enforce existing Federal immigration law. Now overrun by thousands more migrants generated by the three-plus year border surge, many of those sanctuary jurisdictions are seeing drastically overtaxed resources and growing discord among their own legal residents.
Florida Governor and former 2024 presidential candidate Ron DeSantis announced Thursday he would dispatch Florida National Guard troops to Texas to assist in securing the border, in the continued absence of federal protection there.
Proctor says his resolution is broadly supported in the Kansas statehouse.
“This resolution has been co-sponsored by an overwhelming majority of lawmakers from both sides of the aisle. It affirms the Kansas Legislature’s support for the Governor of Texas in his fight to secure our southern border and calls on Governor Laura Kelly to provide support–up to and including sending the Kansas National Guard.”
The statehouse rally will run from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. an opening prayer by Dave DePue. Proctor said those planning to attend the event on the south steps of the statehouse should dress patriotically, be weather ready and bring flags and banners of support.
Dane Hicks is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and the United States Marine Corps Officer Candidate School at Quantico, VA. He is the author of novels "The Skinning Tree" and "A Whisper For Help." As publisher of the Anderson County Review in Garnett, KS., he is a recipient of the Kansas Press Association's Boyd Community Service Award as well as more than 60 awards for excellence in news, editorial and photography.
