A political stunt on the border

The decision by President Donald Trump to send National Guard troops to patrol the U.S. border with Mexico is wrong. There is no crisis on the southern border. A military presence is not necessary to make our nation more secure. To be more specific, the United States does not need to keep troops on the border until Trump persuades (bullies?) Congress into funding his border wall. This is a political stunt that will prove costly and perhaps dangerous before it is over.

Assigning troops on the border allows Trump to play to his biggest fans, while at the same time, it continues to demonize immigrants. For Trump, creating a crisis where none exists also serves to remove attention from the growing seriousness of the investigation into his dealings with Russia, his possible payments to porn stars and the raid Monday against his personal lawyer.

Distract. Deflect. Delay. Such are the tools in this president’s kit.

Gov. Susana Martinez, regrettably, is buying into the president’s shaky logic. She has announced that 80 New Mexico National Guard members will deploy to the border. As many as 250 eventually could be posted there.

Sending troops to the border does not have to be an empty gesture — or in this case, a threat. Former Gov. Bill Richardson sent troops in 2010 after an uptick in violent crime and drug activity. It was conducted in cooperation with the state of Chihuahua authorities.

As president, both George W. Bush and Barack Obama used troops. They were trying to push Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform as well as provide support for the Border Patrol while it recruited and trained new officers. Trump is saying he will put up a human wall because he lacks the money to build a border wall. That’s the same wall he promised that Mexico would pay for during the campaign.

Let’s not forget, either, that Republicans hold the majority in Congress. It seems that a president should be able to persuade fellow Republicans to help him keep a campaign promise. That he has failed shows what a bad and expensive idea this wall is.

Instead, Trump is calling for deployment of 2,000 to 4,000 soldiers, with the Pentagon paying the bill. So far, the governors of New Mexico, Texas and Arizona have all said they would participate; California — a sanctuary state for undocumented immigrants — is holding back, the only border state to do so.

With illegal immigration down and without specific threats of violence spilling across the border, sending troops is an expensive and ill-conceived gesture. Consider these monthly apprehension numbers from just before Bush and Obama acted: 2006, 126,538; 2010, 55,237. That’s compared to 37,393 people intercepted trying to cross the border in March.

Yes, all countries want secure borders and control of who exits and enters. Walls and soldiers are not the best ways to achieve that goal, however. A better way forward would be improving our immigration system so that people who want to move here can find legal means to do so. That would be true, humane reform.

Protecting adults who were brought here as children without their say-so is another way to show the United States can do what is right — the protected young people contribute to our economy and our society. This is their home. It is wrong to use the immigration system as a way to promote a sort of white nationalist vision for the country, yet that seems to be a goal of this president and some of his key advisers.

To take a broader view, if countries south of us were more stable and successful, the residents of those nations would not want — or need — to leave. A better investment, rather than in troops or walls, would be spending dollars to help stabilize the region so that people are safe and comfortable where they live. That would improve our economy as well, as well-off neighbors can purchase more of our goods and services.

Troops to the border now? Call it what it is: A political stunt that the United States can ill afford, both because of costs and because it distracts from the necessary business of reforming immigration policy in a sensible, humane fashion.