Mississippi governor backs sending National Guard to border

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – Mississippi Republican Gov. Phil Bryant says he “fully supports” President Donald Trump’s decision to deploy the National Guard to patrol the U.S.-Mexican border.

Bryant said Friday in a statement that Mississippi’s National Guard “will stand ready to receive the president’s orders.”

Related: Alabama to review Guard resources if sought for border duty

Mississippi National Guard spokesman Lt. Col. Christian Patterson says approximately 3,500 Mississippi soldiers are now training in Texas for deployment later this year to the Middle East.

Patterson says he can’t immediately say, of remaining members of the 12,500-member force, how many might be suited to border deployment.

As of Friday afternoon, Patterson says the state hasn’t received orders to send troops to the border.

Patterson says individual guard members have been deployed to patrol the border in the past, but says Mississippi never has had a “large presence.”

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