Trump: Send guards to southwest border
He orders plan a day after he caught many by surprise
President’s hastily assembled plan to deploy National Guard troops along border caught many in the military by surprise.
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Wednesday announced a hastily assembled plan to deploy National Guard troops along the southwestern border, hoping to make good on a promise the president made a day earlier that caught many in the military by surprise.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed a proclamation directing the action. Trump said in a memorandum to his secretaries of defense and homeland security and to his attorney general that the “situation at the border has now reached a point of crisis.”
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said troops would be deployed “immediately” and that she had already spoken to four governors whose states share the border. But by day’s end, none of the four border governors had publicly committed to a specific number of Guard units to be deployed.
At least one of them, Gov. Jerry Brown, the lone Democrat of the four, heard from Nielsen about the issue for the first time on Wednesday, according to a spokesman. Without key details, including the number of troops, the duration of their deployment and the cost, Brown was unwilling to commit to the effort.
The administration’s request “will be promptly reviewed to determine how best we can assist our federal partners. We look forward to more detail, including funding (and) duration,” California National Guard spokesman Lt. Col. Tom Keegan said in a statement.
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, both Republicans, welcomed Trump’s action but stopped short of specifying how many personnel their states would activate for border security.
“Arizona welcomes the deployment of National Guard to the border,” Ducey wrote on Twitter. “Washington has ignored this issue for too long and help is needed. For Arizona, it’s all about public safety.”
Administration officials who described their plans to reporters were vague about the number of Guard personnel who might be sent to the border. And while they offered a detailed account of what they see as the main current problem there — a rising number of Central American refugees making claims for asylum — they left unclear what Guard troops could do about it.
Trump plans to sign a proclamation to allow the deployment, but the decisions have to be made in conjunction with the governors of the four border states, Nielsen said.
The hurried moves came a day after after Trump surprised the military and some of his own staff with talk of deploying the military to guard the border.
Later Tuesday, White House officials said that what Trump was actually referring to was deployment of National Guard units, much as President George W. Bush did in 2006 and President Barack Obama did in 2010.
National Guard personnel would not be allowed to arrest people crossing the border — something barred by federal law — but could provide support to the Border Patrol. In previous deployments, Guard troops have been used to help build roads, keep watch for illegal crossings and scout smuggling routes.
Trump’s call to bring in the military mirrored other recent spontaneous policy and personnel announcements that have forced advisers to scramble. It came after several days in which the president stewed over the lack of funding from Congress to build his promised border wall and suffered criticism from some of his nationalist allies for failure to win more money for the project.
In briefing reporters, Nielsen said the administration had recently seen an uptick in illegal border crossings after a steep decline last year. The numbers are not definitive, and monthly figures often fluctuate, but officials appear concerned that illegal crossings could mount quickly in the spring, the season in which border crossings typically peak.
Smuggling gangs “paused” after Trump took office, but “these illicit smuggling groups saw that our ability to actually remove those who come here illegally did not keep pace. They saw that there were loopholes they could exploit to avoid detention and removal,” she said.
But she left unclear what the National Guard would be able to do to help that situation, which she blamed primarily on people who claim a “credible fear” of persecution in their home countries and ask for asylum in the U.S. In many such cases, asylum seekers cross the border, quickly surrender to the Border Patrol and ask for refuge in the U.S.
Under U.S. law, people who have an asylum claim must be given a hearing, and in many cases are released until their court date. Families with minor children cannot be held in detention for more than 20 days under certain circumstances. Government figures show that a large majority of those released do show up for their hearings.
The government could keep a larger number in detention, but that would be extremely expensive. The daily detention cost is about $164 per person. Immigration officials are authorized to hold up to 34,000 immigrants at one time, bringing the federal government’s annual budget for immigration detention to about $2 billion.
Before 2013, about 1 percent of border crossers claimed asylum, and now about 10 percent do, Nielsen said, suggesting that much of the increase involved false claims.
The administration would once again ask Congress to change immigration law to allow faster processing of claims and speedier deportations, she added.
In the meantime, Nielsen said the administration would work with governors to determine the numbers of Guard troops to be deployed.
States already have some Guard members positioned along the border. The California National Guard has about 250 people working on missions to stop illegal drugs from getting into the state, including 55 helping along the border.
In Texas, Gov. Abbott pointed out in a statement that since he became governor in 2015, the Texas National Guard has maintained a “continuous” presence on the border.
“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,” he said.
He did not mention deploying any additional resources, although Texas officials said that remained a possibility.