Abbott ready to work with U.S. on border
Governor applauds Trump’s order for Guard deployment.
As Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush did before him, President Donald Trump plans to deploy National Guard troops to the border to support law enforcement officials there until the border wall he is seeking can be built.
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Wednesday that Trump would sign a proclamation authorizing the deployment and would work with border state governors to “immediately” send troops to the border, perhaps as early as Wednesday night.
I n Texas, where National Guard troops have been deploying to the border for many years, Gov. Greg Abbott’s office said the state is ready to work with the Trump administration on potentially expanding their mission.
“My top priority as governor is ensuring the safety and security of Texans, and securing our southern border has always been essential to that mission,” Abbott said. “Today’s action by the Trump
administration reinforces Texas’ longstanding commitment to secure our southern border and uphold the rule of law, and I welcome the support. Going forward, Texas will continue to implement robust border security efforts, and this partnership will help ensure we are doing everything we can to stem the flow of illegal immigration.”
“Securing our southern border remains a priority for the governor, which is why he has deployed the Texas National Guard and added more Texas Department of Public Safety officers to the region,” said Ciara Matthews, deputy communications director for the governor.
“Gov. Abbott will continue to work with the federal government to ensure greater border security,” Matthews said.
While Abbott has not yet talked directly with the president, he did speak Tuesday with Nielsen and is awaiting further details of the president’s plan.
The president called Tuesday for deploying the military to the border until a wall is built. Trump had vented his frustration on Twitter and elsewhere with a congressional spending deal that provides $1.6 billion in border security funds, but does not allow construction of new border wall prototypes.
The deal calls for 33 miles of additional fencing in the Rio Grande Valley, though not at the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, which was specifically exempted in the bill.
Shortly after taking office, Trump signed an executive order calling for the hiring of 5,000 more U.S. Border Patrol agents, though a Government Accountability Office report in November found the agency is still far from hitting its recruitment target.
Anxiety on the rise
While federal law prohibits active duty service members from performing law enforcement duties, National Guard troops have conducted surveillance missions along the banks of the Rio Grande and in aerial missions in Texas for much of the last decade.
Today, about 100 National Guardsmen “function primarily as observers and report activity to the appropriate law enforcement channels,” according to Lt. Col. Travis Walters, spokesman for the Texas Military Department.
U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, called the new deployments “a positive step toward providing the safety this nation has long demanded,” but he also called on Congress to pass more comprehensive border security measures.
“Fixing our broken immigration system and closing dangerous loopholes prevent drugs, gangs, and terrorists from pouring across our borders,” he said.
State Rep. Cesar Blanco, D-El Paso, called the proposal a “solution in search of a problem,” noting the overall decrease in immigrant apprehensions at the border since Trump took office.
“This President is out of touch with reality and has consistently demonstrated his disregard for our border communities and Latinos,” Blanco said in a statement. “Demonizing and militarizing our border only hurts our local communities, families, and economy.”
White House officials said the most recent apprehension numbers, which have not been publicly released yet, showed “staggering” increases in apprehensions after several months of rising numbers.
Trump’s proposal to send the U.S. military to guard the southern border with Mexico drew sharp words of rebuke from Mexican presidential candidates, as the Mexican government sought official clarification of Trump’s intent.
Mexican presidential front-runner Andres Manuel López Obrador, a leftist who narrowly lost a disputed election in 2006, vowed to form a human chain of white-clad protesters along the length of the 1,954-mile border.
He urged Trump “not to use his anti-Mexican attitude for political propaganda.”
Guard already active
In 2014, then-Gov. Rick Perry dispatched about 1,000 Guardsmen as part of a surge of state resources after sharp increases in unauthorized families and unaccompanied children crossing into the Rio Grande Valley.
During his unsuccessful presidential run in 2016, Perry cited the success of the National Guard surge in reducing illegal crossings, though critics pointed out that factors such as Mexico’s crackdown on Central American migrants, media campaigns in Central America and seasonal fluctuations also drove down numbers.
The question of how to measure the effectiveness of border security efforts continues to be a source of controversy.
The National Guard mission has also morphed as part of Operation Phalanx, which began in 2010 when President Obama sent 1,200 troops to aid U.S. Border Patrol agents.
In 2012, the deployment became an airborne surveillance mission, which in Texas consisted largely of nighttime helicopter flights lifting off from Laredo and Harlingen. The surveillance flights were considered more cost-effective and productive than traditional boots on the ground: At $35 million per year, compared to three times as much for ground troops, the surveillance flights were credited with helping apprehend 10 times as many immigrants.
Operation Phalanx ended in 2016 and since then, about 100 Texas National Guard troops largely provide support and surveillance help to Texas Department of Public Safety troopers and U.S. Border Patrol agents along the Rio Grande.
In July, Texas National Guard officials said the border mission was transitioning once again to focus on hands-on training and unit readiness, in addition to the DPS support role, when the federal government temporarily picked up the tab for the Texas National Guard efforts.
Currently, however, the operation is once again a state-led mission, funded by Texas dollars, officials said.
“The support we provide DPS along our Texas-Mexico border does not impact ongoing operations or our ability to respond to a natural disaster or incident in the state,” Walters said. “The (Texas National Guard) provides a variety of subject matter experts and equipment primarily involving logistics and ground troops to support the state-led operations along the Texas-Mexico border.”