Arizona, Texas pledge troops for border fight
Soldiers set to stay until progress made on Trump’s wall.
HOUSTON — Arizona and Texas pledged on Monday to send about 1,300 National Guard members to the U.S.-Mexico border, responding to President Donald Trump’s plan to use the military to help fight illegal immigration and drug trafficking.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he would add about 300 troops a week to the 250 members of the National Guard whose deployment was announced Friday until the total number reaches at least 1,000 troops. Arizona officials announced they were sending 225 National Guard members to the border Monday and pledged to deploy another 113 today.
California and New Mexico, the two other southwest border states, have not made public commitments to sending Guard members. Under the federal law Trump invoked in his proclamation calling for National Guard troops, governors retain command and control over their state’s Guard members.
Trump said last week he wants to send 2,000 to 4,000 National Guard members to the southwestern border.
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey told a group of soldiers preparing to deploy from a Phoenix military base that their “mission is about providing manpower and resources to support federal, state, county, tribal and local law enforcement agencies in stopping the flow of criminals, narcotics, weapons and ammunition that is being trafficked into our state.”
Ducey initially said Arizona would send more troops today but did not specify how many. The state’s National Guard in a statement later that 113 members would follow the initial deployment of 225.
The Republican Ducey told reporters later that the deployments are needed to stop a surge of border crossings since March and accused the U.S. government of previously ignoring the border “for nearly a decade.”
Texas agencies posted images over the weekend of Guard members arriving at the border. On Monday, Abbott told San Antonio radio station KTSA that Texas will significantly ramp up its commitment to Trump’s call over the next several weeks.
Some Guard members will be armed if they are placed in potential danger, Abbott said. He added that he wanted to “downplay any notion” that “our National Guard is showing up with military bayonets trying to take on anybody that’s coming across the border, because that is not their role.”
He said that based on his conversations with Trump and other officials, there’s no end date on the deployment.
“We may be in this for the long haul,” he said.
New Mexico’s Republican governor, Susana Martinez, has said her state would take part in the operation but no announcement has been made on deployment. California Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, has not said if his state’s Guard members will participate.
Ducey denied that his decision to send guard members to the border was politically motivated.
“I don’t think this is a partisan issue or an identity issue,” Ducey said. “You show me somebody who is for drug cartels or human trafficking or this ammunition that’s coming over a wide-open and unprotected border here.”
Trump has said he wants to use the military at the border until progress is made on his proposed border wall, which has mostly stalled in Congress.
Defense Secretary James Mattis last Friday approved paying for up to 4,000 National Guard personnel from the Pentagon budget through the end of September.
A Defense Department memo said the National Guard members will not perform law enforcement functions or “interact with migrants or other persons detained” without Mattis’ approval.