Skepticism greets Trump border plan
NM representatives criticize plan to deploy National Guard
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Wednesday ordered the Pentagon to send National Guard troops to the U.S. border with Mexico to combat illegal immigration and drug trafficking, but administration officials said they weren’t ready to reveal how many troops will be deployed, where they will be stationed or how much the mission will cost.
“The lawlessness that continues at our southern border is fundamentally incompatible with the safety, security, and sovereignty of the American people,” Trump wrote in a memo authorizing the move.
Trump’s decision drew immediate skepticism from Democrats in New Mexico’s congressional delegation. Republican Rep. Steve Pearce also expressed some wariness and said flaws in U.S. border enforcement are strategic and “not a manning problem.”
Senior White House officials, who declined to be identified publicly by name in a call with reporters late Wednesday, said details of the National Guard deployment are still being worked out by the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security.
“We want to avoid revealing any operation details at this time because smuggling and trafficking operations are very sophisticated,” one senior White House official said.
Others at the White House said more information would be revealed in the coming days and reasoned the move will help prevent a sharp uptick in illegal border crossing attempts they are expecting this spring.
“Now is not a smart time for folks to be paying that money to come up to the United States,” a White House official said on the call, referring to wouldbe immigrants who pay human smugglers, or “coyotes,” to deliver them to the U.S. border from deep in Mexico or Central America.
Earlier Wednesday, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said the effort would be similar to a 2006 operation in which President George W. Bush deployed troops to help U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel with non-law enforcement duties while additional border agents were hired and trained. President Barack Obama also sent about 1,200 troops in 2010 to beef up efforts against drug smuggling and illegal immigration.
Trump’s decision to bolster border security with the military seems triggered at least in part by news of a caravan of migrants, mostly from Central America, moving north through Mexico toward the United States.
The caravan has become a regular event in Mexico to document the plight of migrants, and some request asylum when they arrive at the border. The president began tweeting about the issue on Sunday.
Trump’s plan is also part of his effort to fulfill his 2016 campaign promise to crack down on illegal immigration.
Trump has been threatening to scrap the North American Free Trade Agreement both to secure more favorable trade terms and to pressure Mexico into blocking immigrants coming from Central America.
The White House said Wednesday it had alerted all Southwest border governors of the plan. New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, a Republican, appreciated being brought in on the planning of the National Guard deployment, said her spokesman, Michael Lonergan.
“The men and women of the New Mexico National Guard are well-trained professionals, and the governor supports them fully in any mission — state or federal at home or abroad,” Lonergan said, while stopping short of explicitly endorsing the White House proposal. “It’s important to remember that we would not be in this situation to begin with if Congress would act on comprehensive immigration reform, which the governor has often said should make border security a top priority.”
Sen. Martin Heinrich, a New Mexico Democrat who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the proposal to use the military on the border shows that Trump is “grossly out of touch with the reality of our experiences in New Mexico.”
“He should spend less time watching Fox News and more time listening to the people who actually live and work in communities on the border about what their needs are,” Heinrich said. “I guarantee the answer is not wasting billions in taxpayer dollars to militarize their neighborhoods.”
Pearce, who represents southern New Mexico, including the state’s border with Mexico, has complained that the Border Patrol in his district isn’t fully deployed on the physical border. For example, some 100 agents are stationed in Las Cruces, 60 miles away. Pearce is running for governor of New Mexico this year.
“We need to give greater autonomy to border patrol sector and station chiefs to deploy agents on the actual border,” Pearce said. “If the military plays a role at all, the specifics will matter greatly. The military could easily assist with the transfer of surplus intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) platforms to border patrol. This is an immediate solution that can see military equipment coming back from the Middle East to assist with border recognition and identification.”
Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democratic candidate for governor of New Mexico who chairs the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, slammed the proposal as a “blatant abuse of power” for political ends.
“It is alarming that President Trump continues to demonstrate that he is more interested in advancing politically driven campaign-related issues than resolving our nation’s most pressing challenges,” Lujan Grisham said, adding that the move will unnecessarily “deplete military assets.”
Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., said most illegal drugs come into the U.S. through ports of entry, not across the border.
“The facts simply don’t support what the president is proposing,” Udall said. “And the law doesn’t allow him to unilaterally use troops in the United States to enforce domestic laws.”
Rep. Ben Ray Lujan also denounced the proposal.
“Militarizing the border is a bad idea and his ongoing efforts to instill fear in immigrant communities is deeply disturbing,” he said.