Gov. Lee visits Texas amid politicized immigration clash, offers to send more guard support

Gov. Bill Lee has offered to send additional Tennessee National Guard to Texas amid an increasingly politicized clash between state and federal officials over border patrol issues.

Lee joined Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and a contingent of other Republican governors in Eagle Pass, a Texas border city that has emerged as a flashpoint over immigration issues. Lee on Sunday called it a crisis, and the state previously sent 125 National Guard members to the area in October.

"It's obviously been a crisis for many years now," Lee said. "Republican governors have been sounding that alarm for many years."

Lee issued public support for Abbott in January following a U.S. Supreme Cout ruling that allowed federal Border Patrol agents to remove razor wire bouys installed by Texas along the Rio Grande. Critics have called the razor wire inhumane and largely ineffective at addressing wider immigration issues. Last year, a woman and two children drowned trying to cross the river.

Abbot accused the Biden administration of breaking the compact with states.

The White House, meanwhile, has called on Republican governors to talk to their states' congressional delegations about supporting new immigration policies.

A bipartisan border security package recently reached in Congress would include some Republican-backed measures such as stricter asylum standards and new deportation powers. However, it will be an uphill battle toward passage as former President Donald Trump has pressured House Republicans to torpedo the deal.

Related: How Donald Trump is tightening his grip on the Republican party as he seeks to defeat Haley in SC

In a Tennessean op-ed last week, Lisa Sherman Luna, executive director of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, criticized Lee for backing policies of "violence and devastation."

"The status quo isn't working, and our leaders have a moral obligation to build an immigration system that ensures everyone is treated with dignity and respect, from improving the asylum process and hiring immigration judges to creating an opportunity for citizenship to those already here," Sherman Luna said. "But instead we’re getting Governor Lee’s stamp of approval on bad-faith negotiations, dangerous enforcement, and the politicization of our humanity."

Reach Melissa Brown at mabrown@tennessean.com.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: TN Gov. Lee visits Texas amid immigration clash, offers guard support