WV paid more than $900,000 sending National Guard members to Texas border in 2023

Jim Justice welcomes back National Guard members who volunteered for Operation Lone Star in Texas on Sept. 7, 2023. (Office of Gov. Jim Justice | Courtesy photo)

The state of West Virginia spent more than $900,000 in 2023 sending a group of volunteers from the West Virginia National Guard to the southern border as part of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s controversial Operation Lone Star initiative, according to documents obtained via the Freedom of Information Act and shared by nonprofit watchdog group American Oversight.

The roughly $907,000 expense was used to send 53 members of the Guard, who all volunteered for the mission, to Eagle Pass, Texas for a month-long deployment. Details of what they did on that deployment have been sparse and both the Governor’s Office and representatives for the West Virginia National Guard have repeatedly denied or ignored requests from West Virginia Watch since August seeking further information.

In June 2023 — about two months before the Guard members left for the border at Gov. Jim Justice’s request — representatives for the National Guard told WV News the estimated cost of the initiative was $600,000. In a news briefing that same month, Justice said taxpayers would “have to bear the cost” of the deployment.

The documents obtained by American Oversight in September 2023 — the same month the troops returned — outlined the expenses to total $907,178. Line item details for those expenses, however, were redacted, making it difficult to tell what the money was used for.

Representatives for the West Virginia National Guard did not return requests for comment on this article.

C.J. Harvey, communications director for Justice, referred questions regarding this cost and the justification for the deployment to a news release from August 2023, when troops were welcomed home by the governor.

That press release included no details on the cost for the initiative. It said, broadly, that those deployed were put to work “to detect, deter, and interdict transnational criminal activity including human smuggling/trafficking and the flow of illegal narcotics and drugs into the U.S. between official points of entry.”

During the month-long deployment, according to the release, members of the West Virginia National Guard encountered more than 10,000 migrants attempting to access the United States. According to the Department of Homeland Security, state personnel — including National Guard troops — are not authorized to process people crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, as that falls under federal jurisdiction.

An account from one member of the West Virginia National Guard, speaking to MetroNews in August , detailed how members in his unit patrolled the border, but gave no insight to actual responsibilities or duties while there.

Reporting from other states where troops were sent on similar missions over the last few years detailed that there was often not much for them to do . They would be assigned busy work, including shoveling horse manure, surveying cameras and filing paperwork.

West Virginia was one of at least 14 Republican-run states where governors heeded a request from Abbott to send troops to the border for Operation Lone Star. Though West Virginia has not sent any more troops since the August 2023 deployment, other states are continuing to do so this year, racking up millions in taxpayer dollars for what critics have said is nothing more than political theater in the lead up to a contentious election.

The initiative has been wrought with controversy, including allegations of inhumane treatment toward migrants and asylum seekers, civil rights violations and more. Several federal lawsuits have been filed against Abbott and the state of Texas for incidents occurring at the border. Eagle Pass has been a focal point for many of these tensions, where locals have struggled with how to respond to the militarization of their community even as immigration numbers drop to new lows.

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