Indiana National Guard members listen as Gov. Eric Holcomb speaks at a departure ceremony on Thursday, March 28. Soldiers soon leave for Texas. Photo by Leslie Bonilla Muñiz of the Indiana Capital Chronicle.

By Leslie Bonilla Muñiz
Indiana Capital Chronicle

INDIANA — Green-garbed Indiana National Guard soldiers milled around a big beige room Thursday, March 28, morning, chatting among themselves, speaking with spouses and parents, and pushing their children in strollers. They gathered on a hulking set of blue bleachers in five neat rows of 10 each, then snapped to attention for the national anthem.

The 50 men and women selected from more than 300 volunteers depart Indiana for the Texas border town of El Paso in early April. The company is set for a 10-month deployment meant to reinforce Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s efforts to close off his state’s share of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Abbott and a growing number of Republican governors say President Joe Biden’s administration isn’t doing enough to stem the flow of unauthorized migrants. Holcomb announced the deployment in February, after visiting the border and following a “direct request” from Abbott.

“Hoosiers are proving once again: if the federal government at large can’t get their act together on the border, we will,” Holcomb said at a Thursday departure ceremony at Indiana’s Camp Atterbury.

Adj. Gen. Dale Lyles, who leads the Hoosier Guard, told soldiers they’d soon “embark upon a great crusade toward the cause of liberty.”

“The current security environment threatens America’s ideals now, more than (at) perhaps any other time in history,” Lyles said. “Your mission goes well beyond standing watch along our border and our southern flank. You are deploying for the cause of protecting our freedom and our liberty. Never forget that.”

The Hoosier company’s mission to “observe and report” was “an agreement between Indiana and Texas,” according to Master Sgt. Jeff Lowry, the guard’s spokesman.

Drug Concerns Drive Participation

Holcomb and guard members alike cited illicit drugs entering Indiana as a primary motivator.

“So many people in (each) of our 92 counties are working hard day in and day out, to try to address addiction … and we continue to see record amounts of illegal killer drugs flowing into our state and 49 others,” Holcomb told reporters.

Indiana State Police seized 92 pounds of meth, 8 pounds of cocaine, a pound of fentanyl and a half-pound of heroin in a single arrest Tuesday in Indianapolis, Holcomb announced. But it’s not yet clear if the drugs entered the country through El Paso because the arrest was so recent, he said.

Most fentanyl is smuggled through legal points of entry, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Acting Commissioner Troy Miller told NPR last year. But most people convicted of bringing the drug across the border are U.S. citizens, according to the conservative-leaning Cato Institute.

Sgt. Daniel Cook, one of the 50 soldiers heading to El Paso, said the mission is to rein in unauthorized entry and to “curb the fentanyl epidemic.”

“I was one of the first people to put my name on the list,” the 24-year-old Cook told reporters. “… I see the problems that (fentanyl) can cause, the families that it’s affected. And I just want to help allow Hoosiers to live long, peaceful, meaningful lives.”

Soldiers also cited other reasons for volunteering. Christopher Estrada, a 26-year-old studying flight at Utah Valley University, said the state had offered “very good benefits.” He hoped to pay off debt.

Estrada said he typically doesn’t net money off his service — the monthly flights from Utah to Indiana for drills eat up his pay — but he thought the mission to Texas would be “good for the family in the long run.” He leaves a wife and daughter at home.

Soldiers are being called up under State Active Duty, meaning the state of Indiana pays their salaries.

The deployment is expected to cost the state of Indiana about $7 million, including pay and allowances, hotel accommodations, transportation, supplies and maintenance. An earlier statement from the guard said it had sufficient funds to cover the costs.

Deployment Details

Holcomb has previously deployed a collective 300 soldiers to Texas for a variety of federal missions, according to a February news release.

Indiana’s soldiers have been mobilizing since then. They completed two weeks of training at Camp Atterbury on the “operations of the mission,” Lowry said Thursday. That included courses on the Spanish language and more.

Soldiers won’t have arrest powers.

“Our role is to assist, not to arrest or apprehend,” Holcomb said. “We are there as a complement — reporting, watching — to our Texan counterparts.”

“We will fall in on what’s already established and we will assist the Texas military department with observing and controlling things that may come across the border,” Lyles added. “We’ll report them and then they will take appropriate action for apprehension. Non-standard missions are a part of what we do. We’re well-trained, well-resourced, and we’re ready to execute the mission.”

Soldiers have internal Hoosier leadership but will “take direction” from the Texas National Guard and Texas Department of Public Safety, according to Lowry.

They’re expected to return before Christmas, he said.