Georgia state senator pushes for invasion declaration at U.S. border
Freshman state Sen. Colton Moore, R-Trenton, has been named chairman of the Senate Interstate Cooperation Committee in the Georgia General Assembly and has been calling witnesses about the situation at the U.S. southern border.
He has brought in multiple witnesses who described how Georgia Army National Guard troops are assisting the federal government at the border.
“I want us to see what the problem really is, and ultimately by finding that knowledge, we can find good solutions to fix the problem,” Moore said at a meeting this month. “It’s much bigger than just Texas, it’s much bigger than just Georgia. We’re going against an international drug cartel, an international human smuggling cartel.”
As part of a federal mission, Maj. Gen. Thomas Carden told the committee, Georgia National Guard troops detect and monitor migrant traffic by land and air until they can be intercepted by U.S. Border Patrol. They also offer intelligence support by monitoring activity in Mexico before migrants reach the border, he said at the hearing.
Carden said there have been few gaps in deployment since President George W. Bush ordered National Guard troops be deployed in 2006. Though Georgia Army National Guard troops are armed, they can only provide support services like tracking and surveillance of migrants, he said.
The Georgia Army National Guard has 126 troops deployed currently, and Carden said that number dropped from about 200 a year or 18 months ago. The entire mission comprises more than 2,000 troops, made up of National Guard units from around the nation, he said.
Sen. Josh McLaurin, D-Sandy Springs, and Sen. Randy Robertson, R-Cataula, sat in on the hearing.
“This is an issue all Americans should be concerned about,” McLaurin, a lawyer, said at the hearing. “It’s just a question of what those concerns are and how to tackle them.”
Georgia Bureau of Investigation Inspector Jeff Roesler said the bureau’s human exploitation and trafficking unit addresses sex and labor trafficking, and within the last year labor trafficking relating to agriculture has been an added focus.
Trafficking is different than some other crimes, he said, because victims are often too afraid to ask authorities for help.
“They’re masters (traffickers) of exploiting people’s vulnerabilities,” Roesler said. “They find these people at their worst.”
Trafficking includes force, fraud or coercion, he said, and makes more money than smuggling — in which someone is simply moved from place to place — he said. People who are trafficked are often indebted to the cartel and are forced to work off that debt under the threat of violence to them or their families back home.
Roesler said the bureau has established a tip line for human trafficking. People can call 866-363-4842. The tip line includes a Spanish option, he said.
There were also speakers from Texas at the hearing, including Goliad County Sheriff Roy Boyd, who said cartels “ruthlessly” control the border, and those who try to cross without payment are often killed.
“Georgia is affected by the flood of illegal immigrants, drugs and trafficking that comes across the southern border every day,” said Texas state Rep. Bryan Slaton, adding that the border is an issue for every state.
He asked for Georgia to make donations to help build a border wall, declare an invasion on a state level and declare the cartels as terrorist organizations. Because the cartels are so organized and well-equipped, he said, they’re hard to stop.
Chris Russo, the founder and president of Texans for Strong Borders, a non-profit advocating for border security, told the committee National Guard troops “often serve as a funnel into the broken federal immigration system where the law is not being enforced. In other words, it’s catch-and-release with a few extra steps.”
Russo also recommended declaring an invasion at the border, which he said may allow National Guard troops to contribute more than support services to Border Patrol.
Adriana Heffley, director of legal services for the Georgia Asylum and Immigration Network, said words have power and people should push back on any narrative that dehumanizes people. The nonprofit organization she works for has a mission to protect and empower immigrant survivors of crime with free legal services and support.
She said by email that there is good work being done in partnerships between law enforcement and nonprofit groups regarding migration, and an invasion declaration could criminalize the migrants being victimized.
“This move has the power to erode the community trust that some law enforcement partners have been working to establish for years now,” she said, “and to make our communities less safe by sabotaging their efforts to hold the true predators accountable.”
Moore said every town is a border town, and migrants have been housed in his home county of Dade in Northwest Georgia.
“You certainly feel sorry for them. You hope they find a better life — they come from a hard circumstance — but it certainly gave a quick reality (check) to the situation on the ground,” Moore said at the hearing.
The purpose of the hearing was mainly a reality check, Moore said by phone after the hearing, and to illustrate how the Georgia National Guard is helping at the border. The fact that Georgia law treats smuggling with less severity than trafficking, he said, could be examined for legislation in the future.