Governor approves federal request to deploy additional SD National Guard members to southern border

More members of the South Dakota National Guard are being deployed to the southern border between the United States and Mexico.  Governor Kristi Noem Wednesday approved the deployment of approximately 125 members of the South Dakota National Guard for the deployment that will take place later this year at the request of the federal government.  

The soldiers are members of the Guard’s 1742nd Transportation Company, stationed in Sioux Falls and Flandreau.  These soldiers will be deployed for up to nine to twelve months and will be in a federal pay status.  This deployment is in addition to the state active duty deployment that Governor Noem announced last week.

The guard members will provide non-law enforcement support to U.S. customs agents as part of the government’s Southwest Border mission. The Southwest Border mission involves security along the Mexican border in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. The request for South Dakota guard members came from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the National Guard Bureau. About three-thousand Guard members from several states are involved in this federal mission.