Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) said he will send hundreds of National Guard soldiers to California’s border with Mexico in the coming days as thousands of illegal immigrants enter the state each week.

“California has doubled our National Guard at the border that are working to stop the flow of fentanyl,” Newsom wrote in a post to X while in the San Diego area Thursday afternoon. “While the GOP play games and Mike Johnson searches for his spine — we’re out here doing the work.”

At present, the state has 155 soldiers on the border. The number of deployed soldiers will increase to 392 in the coming days, according to the governor’s office.

But the beefing up of security isn’t for the illegal immigration surge, according to Newsom. Present soldiers will continue to only be assigned to ports of entry where commercial trucks, passenger vehicles, and pedestrians may seek admission.

The large majority of all fentanyl seized at the U.S.-Mexico border each year is found hidden in vehicles and inside body carriers. However, it is not being taken between the ports of entry where migrants cross illegally, according to public data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

In fall 2023, Newsom assigned 40 to 60 soldiers each to four ports of entry, including San Ysidro and Otay Mesa.

“Our top priority is the safety of our communities statewide,” Newsom said. “By working with state, local, and federal partners to take down transnational organizations and the illegal drugs they attempt to bring into our state, the state’s Counter Drug Taskforce is making a profound difference to hold smugglers accountable and take deadly drugs off our streets.”

The deployment began in 2022, with just 30 National Guard at the ports of entry, and has continued to increase each year, according to a statement from CalGuard Major General Matthew Beevers.

Meanwhile, between the ports, nearly 8,500 illegal immigrants were arrested entering the San Diego area between May 29 and June 4, according to U.S. Border Patrol San Diego Sector Chief Patricia D. McGurk-Daniel.

The San Diego jurisdiction spans 60 miles of the state’s 140-mile border with Mexico. The remaining 80 miles of the state’s border is under Border Patrol’s El Centro Sector, which does not post data on arrests.

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The illegal immigration situation in Southern California has become so dire that the shortage of available Border Patrol agents has prompted some illegal immigrants entering the United States to hike miles into the country in search of law enforcement rather than wait at the border to be apprehended.

The Washington Examiner obtained an internal document sent to agents in May that revealed an incident in which migrants took it upon themselves to hike 5 miles to a federal police facility in the region rather than wait for agents to show up at the border. Agents said these kinds of stragglers are becoming the new normal.