Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake vows to declare 'invasion,' send armed troops to border

A leading candidate for Arizona governor says she would declare her state is under invasion on her first day in office and send armed troops to seal the border from illegal immigrants.

Kari Lake, a Republican endorsed by former President Donald Trump, laid out her plans Wednesday in an interview with the Just the News TV show on Real America's Voice.

She was one of several Republicans to voice concerns the border crisis begun by the Biden administration is about to substantially worsen if the Title 42 health regulation the Trump administration instituted during the COVID-19 pandemic is lifted.

"We already have a tsunami at our border with this invasion," Lake said, but it will be "nothing compared to what's about to hit us when Title 42 is pulled away."

Just the News reported earlier this week that Customs and Border Protection has already warned agents to expect "irregular shifts and schedules, including holidays and weekends" and that overtime may be authorized as necessary due to the expected ending of Title 42.

Lake accused incumbent Gov. Doug Ducey, R-Ariz., of "not doing enough" and said he needs "to get troops down on the border."

If elected governor, Lake told editor-in-chief John Solomon and co-host Amanda Head that she would issue a declaration of invasion to protect Arizonians from "imminent danger."

Under the declaration, the Arizona Republican said she plans on sending the state's National Guard to the border and allowing the service members to arrest and "send back" illegal immigrants.

"It's pretty simple. You protect your people. And that needs to be done. And right now our government's failing on that," she said  before proposing that GOP-controlled border states could work together to "protect this country from the invasion that's happening at the border."

Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn on Wednesday said border patrol agents have told him they expect a "tsunami" of illegal immigrants if Title 42 expires.

"The border patrol has said they will lose control entirely" without Title 42, he added.

Illinois Republican Rep. Rodney Davis said that his first reaction is "boy, don't we miss President Trump in the White House."

Davis, who is poised to become a House chairman if Republicans take back the House this Fall, applauded Trump's response to the border crisis even though the former president did not endorse him in the upcoming primary.

"The Biden administration tried to gaslight, the American people for months saying that we didn't have a border crisis, when those of us who have been to the border have witnessed it personally," Davis said. "Now they're about ready to announce changes… that are going to encourage more illegal immigration.

"We've got to have a president who's willing to stand up and protect our border [and] make sure that we reinstitute the remain in Mexico policy that was instituted under President Trump," he said.