Officials tour border
Homeland secretary cites ‘crisis’ in visit to San Luis
SAN LUIS — U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen doubled down on her assertion that there’s “a crisis occurring on the border today” as she toured border fencing infrastructure Wednesday in southwestern Arizona, joined by Gov. Doug Ducey and the first wave of National Guard members deployed to the Yuma area.
“I want to make something quite clear: Any number, any percentage that includes a vast amount of drugs, a vast amount of criminals, vast amounts of those who want to do
the country harm is not acceptable,” Nielsen said.
“We have no idea what’s coming through areas that we do not have a way, currently, to properly and adequately surveil,” she added. “So to me, that is the definition of a crisis.”
Nielsen spent about an hour at the Arizona border, after making another brief stop in nearby Calexico, California, to tour ongoing construction of replacement fencing there. She and Ducey on Wednesday afternoon visited a three-fence design near the city of San Luis.
The area is fortified by a primary 16-foot landingmat fence, a secondary, 18-foot wire-mesh fence, and an 8-foot chain-link fence with barbed wire.
The National Guard built those barriers nearly a decade ago, and certain areas of fencing still have the insignia of the regiments from around the United States that helped with construction.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials in Yuma said that they chose that site for the Homeland Security secretary’s visit because that’s where a group of 61 mostly Guatemalan migrants voluntarily turned themselves in last week after crossing the border illegally.
Responding to questions after the tour, Nielsen said a “crisis” was unfolding along the Yuma border area, despite the border-fence infrastructure that has been in place for nearly a decade. She said that the Border Patrol’s Yuma Sector was on track to exceed last year’s number of apprehensions.
“The full year’s interdiction number for 2017 in this sector will be met this evening,” she said. “That is a crisis. The numbers are too high.”
Her visit also coincided with the National Guard’s deployment of the first wave of 30 service members to Yuma to assist Border Patrol agents.
In all, a total of 64 will be based in the sector, which covers 126 miles of international boundary with Mexico stretching from the Yuma County line to the the Imperial Sand Dunes in California.
During the event, Ducey announced that the number of deployed service members in Arizona had increased to 440. It’s the second time in as many weeks that the number has shifted. Initially, the governor activated 225 Guard members, but then upped that number to 338 the following week.
Capt. Aaron Thacker, a spokesman for the National Guard, said that the first group of 338 service members had been fully processed and were being assigned and sent to their locations. The processing for 102 additional members would begin Monday, he added, based on requests from CBP officials.
“They’re from our partner agencies from the Department of Homeland Security,” Thacker said. “Border Patrol says, ‘Hey, we got this sector we think we can free up so many Border Patrol agents if you guys come in and fill in these roles.’ “
President Donald Trump’s administration is finally taking action in response to what was happening on the border, Ducey said.
The governor commended Trump and Nielsen for addressing a surge in border activity.
“Rather than letting this grow or build, this administration acted on it immediately,” Ducey said.
“The way to look at the National Guard being deployed to the border is to think of it as a surge of badges to the border,” he added. “In support of the Border Patrol, so they have more boots on the ground, so they can do their law-enforcement mission.”
During her visit, Nielsen also took a jab at the Supreme Court ruling this week that limited the ability of the government to deport legal migrants — including permanent residents — convicted of certain crimes.
“The Supreme Court ruling (Tuesday) is just one further example of a system that undermines our efforts to keep our country secure,” Nielsen said. “By preventing the federal government from removing known criminal aliens, we allow our country to be a safe haven for criminals. This is not border security. This is not national security.”