LOS ANGELES, April 9 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Governor of Arizona Doug Ducey said Monday that the Grand Canyon state will deploy 225 National Guard members to the U.S.-Mexico border.
"Just updated Arizona border sheriffs on today's deployment of National Guard. LATEST: 225 guard members being deployed today, additional members tomorrow," the governor wrote on his official Twitter page.
"These troops will be helping our federal partners with any support role responsibilities that they need, and will be stationed in both the Tucson and Yuma sectors," he tweeted. Tucson and Yuma both are major cities located near the border.
According to local ABC 15 news channel, Ducey's spokesman Daniel Scarpinato emphasized that the deployment focused on cracking down on drug smuggling across the border.
Ducey embraced U.S. President Donald Trump's idea to send National Guard members soon after it was revealed. He said in a tweet last week that the state "welcomes the deployment of National Guard to the border" and "it's all about public safety" for Arizona.
Texas state government said it was sending guardsmen to the border, with plans to place 250 troops there before Tuesday as an "initial surge."
However, the total so far remains well short of the 2,000 to 4,000 National Guard members that Trump declared. New Mexico state said Friday that it had not yet deployed any Guard members, while California state so far refused to make clear whether it would deploy troops.
Deployments to the border were carried out during terms of former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Bush sent around 6,000 troops in 2006, and Obama sent 1,200 Guard members in 2010.