Troops await orders
PHOENIX — National Guard contingents in U.S. states bordering Mexico awaited guidance Thursday on the what duties they’ll be assigned to help fight illegal immigration and drug smuggling along the border, and a Pentagon official said it has not yet been determined whether the troops will be armed.
The deployment is in “very early planning stages,” the National Guard in Texas said in a statement.
In Washington, Marine Lt. Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie told reporters at the Pentagon that it has not yet been determined how many, if any, of the troops participating in the border security operation will be armed.
With troops in all states, the National Guard has been called on by past presidents and governors to help secure U.S. borders, and the Texas contingent said it had “firsthand knowledge of the mission and operating area” that will allow it to move seamlessly into the new role.
The Republican governors of the border states of Arizona and New Mexico also welcomed deployment of the guard along the southwest border as a matter of public safety, but it was unclear how Democratic California Gov. Jerry Brown would respond to Trump’s call.
Trump ordered the deployment because “we are at a crisis point” with illegal immigration, Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen of the Department of Homeland Security said.
“We’d like to stop it before the numbers get even bigger,” she said.
Though no specifics were provided, Nielsen said guard members would provide support to border officials, “help look at the technology, the surveillance, in some cases we’ll ask for some fleet mechanics” and free up agents trained in law enforcement for other duties.
She said she did not know yet how many guard members would be deployed.
Determining that must “wait until each mission’s set, each location and then work with the governor on how many people.”
Arrests along the U.S. border with Mexico jumped to 50,308 in March, a 37 percent increase from February, and more than triple the same period last year. Border arrests rose 10 of the last 11 months after falling in April 2017 to the lowest since the Department of Homeland Security was created in 2003.
But Republican Mayor Dee Margo of El Paso, Texas, told NPR’s Morning Edition Thursday he was not convinced extra forces are needed for his border city, which he called “the safest” in the United States.
“We already have a fence that was established during the Bush administration that runs through the city,” he said.
Instead of more troops, Margo said “what I would love to see is a better understanding of what truly goes on the border.”
In Mexico, the country’s politicians put aside differences to condemn Trump’s deployment decision.
Mexico’s Senate passed a resolution Wednesday calling for the suspension of cooperation on illegal immigration and drug trafficking in retaliation.
U.S. presidents have deployed the military or the National Guard to help the Border Patrol in the past.