Noem: National Guard heading to border this fall

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — The South Dakota National Guard will be heading back to the Southern Border this fall, according to Gov. Kristi Noem’s weekly column .

In her weekly Friday column, Noem said South Dakota guardsmen recently returned from the border where they constructed more than five miles of border wall, fortified 20 miles of border wall and repaired 45 breaches between Del Rio and Eagle Pass, Texas.

“I spent a day with them helping them build the wall – it wasn’t easy work,” Noem wrote. “They had to clear miles of rough ground in 100-degree heat and Texas humidity before they could get to work on barrier construction. But they were glad to do it in service to our country.”

Noem said another group of South Dakota National Guard troops will be deployed to the border on a federal activation “later this Fall.”

“We will continue to do everything we can to mitigate the cartels’ influence here at home,” Noem wrote.

Noem has sent South Dakota troops to the U.S.-Mexico border more than five times during her term as governor.

State lawmakers provided $4.2 million to the special emergency and disaster special revenue fund in House Bill 1061 .

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