Photo Courtesy/WV Governor's Office Gov. Jim Justice and military leadership of the West Virginia National Guard pose with the 54 National Guard members deploying to Texas for 30-day duty on the southern border.

CHARLESTON — Gov. Jim Justice went to see more than 50 members of the West Virginia National Guard off as they deployed on a 30-day mission to support efforts at the U.S. Southern border with Mexico.

Justice joined Maj. Gen. Bill Crane, adjutant general of the West Virginia National Guard, and other officials with the Army and Air National Guards for a deployment ceremony Monday afternoon at the Joint Forces Headquarters in Charleston.

“We owe every single thing and all of our lives to you,” Justice told Guard members. “I can never thank you enough for what you have done, and what you’re going to do now too and what you’ll do in the future as time goes forward over and over. You have all of the ingredients: the right stuff.”

Justice announced at the end of May that he was committing 54 National Guard members to the southern border after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott wrote a May 16 letter to his fellow governors seeking assistance for Operation Lone Star. The state was bracing for an influx of migrants following the end of the Title 42 expulsion program.

“Today, we recognize the soldiers and airmen who volunteered to answer the call to support their state and nation in support of Operation Lone Star,” said Lt. Col. Bob Luther. “They come from a wide variety of backgrounds and military specialties in our force.

“These soldiers and airmen will join National Guard units from other states and the Texas Military Department to secure our southern border, deploy to high-threat areas and deny criminal organizations the ability to illegally move drugs and people into the United States via the Texas border,” Luther said.

Title 42 is a COVID-19 health order holdover from the administration of Donald Trump that sent asylum seekers back to their countries of origin to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus.

With the ending of the federal COVID-19 emergency in early May by President Joe Biden, Title 42 went away at midnight on May 11.

Despite bracing for an increase in illegal border crossings, the number of encounters with migrants has decreased.

According to monthly data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the monthly migrant encounters on the U.S. border with Mexico totaled 144,571 in June, a 31% decrease from 211,999 encounters in April and a 42% decrease since peaking at 252,330 encounters in December 2022.

Justice, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2024 for the seat held by Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., has been an outspoken critic of Biden’s enforcement of illegal immigration at the southern border.

“Every single day that more and more people cross that border, more and more potential bad things happen to West Virginia,” Justice said earlier Monday during his weekly administration briefing. “We’re a long ways away, but we should step up and do our part.”

Justice has turned to the National Guard frequently during his two-term tenure as governor, including management of the state’s 2016 flood recovery rebuilding effort, the COVID-19 pandemic response and the staffing shortage in state jails and prisons.

“How good are they forever more, and how good will they be forever more in the future? They are the greatest of the greatest, and we should absolutely be so proud,” Justice said. “As I understand, these 54 that are going have all volunteered to go. That doesn’t surprise me one bit in the world.”