South Dakota governor Kristi Noem said President Joe Biden is not running the White House, but someone else is governing the country as she raised concerns over the border crisis that is “an extreme remaking of America.”
During an interview on Fox News on Feb. 4, when asked by host Maria Bartiromo why President Biden is providing free housing and health care to illegal immigrants, Ms. Noem said,
“He’s weak. Somebody’s running the White House. I don’t believe it’s Joe Biden. He’s never been this extreme. This is an extreme remaking of America.”
“It is a socialist-communist agenda. I think that they’ve so infiltrated the Democrat party that it’s no longer the Democrat Party of 20 years ago; it’s now a socialist party that does not want a strong America,” she added.
Ms. Noem is one of over a dozen GOP governors who have visited Texas to show their support for Gov. Greg Abbott in his fight with the Biden administration over the influx of illegal immigrants crossing the border in Eagle Pass.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) estimated throughout the 2023 fiscal year, 2.4 million people illegally crossed the border, up from 2.3 million the previous year. In contrast, between Oct. 1, 2019, to Sept. 30, 2020, before President Biden took office, there were only 458,000 encounters with illegal immigrants by border patrol agents.
In the interview, South Dakota’s governor criticized the Biden administration for the border crisis. “We see the president undermining our country by allowing this invasion at the southern border, and it’s destabilizing our country,” she said.
For weeks, the Biden administration has clashed with Mr. Abbott after the National Guard took control of the 47-acre Shelby Park area in Eagle Pass, Texas, to stop the flood of illegal border crossings.
The Texas National Guard has been accused of denying Border Patrol agents access to the park, leading to multiple legal battles. The Texas state government has cited its constitutional right to exercise its authority to protect the borders.
Ms. Noem has previously sent South Dakota National Guard troops three times to support Texas border control efforts. Last month, she indicated that she would continue to deploy her state’s troops to the border.
Ms. Noem’s border visit comes after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last month that the federal government could remove razor wire and other barriers the Texas state government had placed along the border with Mexico to deter illegal crossings.
Despite the Supreme Court ruling, Mr. Abbott has ordered even more razor wire barriers to be installed. Numerous Republican political leaders, in turn, have voiced their support for the Texas governor’s efforts. Ms. Noem was one of 25 Republican governors who signed a letter voicing support for the Texas governor after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
In the interview with host Maria Bartiromo, she explained, “The reason that the federal government went after Texas was because they'd actually figured out a way to put up the razor wire that was impenetrable that people could not get through. They said even those able-bodied military-aged men could not get through the barrier at that point. And it was so effective that that’s when the federal government came after Texas to take it down.”
The South Dakota governor accused Democrats and President Biden of abusing their power by seeking to federalize the National Guard. She stated that she would defend her authority and even warned of a potential war.
“Democrats have been encouraging this president. They’ve been encouraging President Biden to come after our state’s rights. They’ve been talking about federalizing our National Guard, which would be the first time in American history that we would have a president that would pay soldiers to stand down, to actually not protect America,” she noted.
“If he’s willing to do that and to take away my authority as governor, as commander in chief of those National Guard, boy, we do have a war on our hands,” she warned.
