Call it a Christmas miracle, maybe. Or perhaps a Democrat governor is actually acknowledging that the President has made her border a disaster. But AZ Gov. Katie Hobbs just ordered the National Guard to secure the state’s border with Mexico.

On December 8, Hobbs sent a letter to Joe Biden demanding $512 million in reimbursement for failing to secure the Arizona border. The funds were to cover state spending on migrant transport, drug interdiction, and law enforcement. Plus, they would also make up for Customs and Border Patrol’s closure of the Lukeville Port of Entry on December 4 due to migrants overwhelming resources.

Gov. Katie Hobbs. Gage Skidmore/flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0.

So Hobbs hoped that Biden would send the National Guard to help reopen the vital entry port, pleading:

Our ports of entry are essential to our state and our country’s economy, and it is vital that they be properly staffed and resourced to continue to fuel economic growth in the state. 

But Biden & Co. brushed off Hobbs’ entreaty. Thus, on Friday she signed an Executive Order placing National Guard troops at the US-Mexico border, including Lukeville. The order reads, in part:

With this Executive Order, I am taking action where the federal government won’t. But we can’t stand alone, Arizona needs resources and manpower to reopen the Lukeville crossing, manage the flow of migrants, and maintain a secure, orderly and humane border. Despite continued requests for assistance, the Biden administration has refused to deliver desperately needed resources to Arizona’s border. 

Ooh, harsh. But truthful.

However, Gov. Hobbs isn’t the only Arizona Democrat to cry uncle about the border. On Thursday, Rep. Ruben Gallego also called on Biden to issue an emergency declaration at the border. Consider that he had previously claimed there was no border emergency, and that a wall was “stupid.” Then again, Gallego is running for Senate next November, so that explains a lot.

Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly — both Democrats — also support Hobbs in her criticism of Joe Biden’s inattention to the AZ border.

Katie Hobbs became governor in January, 2023, so she hasn’t even completed one full year in office. She doesn’t have re-election staring at her. So why is she breaking ranks with her party and calling for the National Guard?

IEDs: Not Just For Jihadis Anymore

On December 13 — days before Hobbs’ order for National Guard assistance — the Customs and Border Patrol warned its agents to be on the lookout for explosive devices. In other words, IEDs.

Fox Business received a memo from a law enforcement official which reported seizure by the Mexican government of ten IEDs near the AZ border at Tucson. The Mexican officials had found the devices after a gun fight between two cartels over a border fence gap that they use for drug smuggling. But now the cartels are also using it for human trafficking — and the gangs are fighting over the turf.

On top of that, the Tucson sector chief reported that earlier in the month some 17,500 illegals crossed into his sector in one week. Plus, agents encountered 55,000 illegals in October alone. And during fiscal 2023, there were over 775,000 illegals crossing into Arizona, according to the CBP.

No wonder the governor of Arizona is anxious to get the National Guard at the border.

National Guard Order Makes Hobbs a Border Hawk

Phil Boas, a writer for the Arizona Republic, penned an opinion piece on Wednesday that had a panicky tone — for Democrats, that is.

In his piece, “You know Democrats are in trouble when Gov. Katie Hobbs sounds like a border hawk,” Boas fretted:

When Arizona’s Democratic governor, Katie Hobbs, starts to look and sound like a GOP border hawk, you know something is afoot.

The bottom line for Boas?

When the Democratic incumbent president finds himself trailing the latest polls to a twice-impeached, four-time indicted former president, it’s time to start asking what’s up?

He continued by citing statistics — like Real Clear Politics which finds that 63% of Americans disapprove of Biden’s handling of the border. Boas also labeled the immigration problem “Biden’s Kryptonite.”

And abortion won’t save the Democrat party either, said Boas.

But just when it seemed abortion had become Republicans’ kryptonite, another issue of equal urgency has emerged as its counterweight by confounding Democrats:

Immigration … 

In America we are waking up to the possibility that the large numbers we see crossing the U.S.-Mexico border are not just out of control, but possibly uncontrollable.

Now don’t expect a liberal like Katie Hobbs to suddenly become a conservative Republican. But the fact that she wrote a scathing letter to Joe Biden, and followed that with an executive order to place the National Guard at the southern border shows that she and other Dems may be smelling the coffee. It may not be a Christmas miracle, but it’s a a good start.

Featured image: Arizona Department of Transportation/flickr/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. Cropped.