U.S. begins sending Guard troops to border with Mexico

WESLACO, Texas — The deployment of National Guard members to the U.S.-Mexico border at President Donald Trump’s request was underway Tuesday with a gradual ramp-up of troops under orders to help curb illegal immigration.

The Trump administration also announced that Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen will visit this week a stretch of new border wall breaking ground in New Mexico, putting additional focus on what Trump has called a crisis of migrant crossings and crime.

The construction and the commitment of at least 1,600 Guard members from Arizona, New Mexico and Texas provoked fresh condemnation from immigrant activists and praise from border-state Republican governors, who will retain command-and-control of their state’s Guard during a mission that for now has no firm end date.

The only holdout border state was California, led by Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, who has not announced whether troops from his state’s National Guard will participate and has repeatedly clashed with Trump over immigration policy.

In Texas, where Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has pledged to put more than 1,000 Guard members into action, military officials said Tuesday that 300 troops would report to armories this week for preparation and training. Texas has kept about 100 Guard members on the border.

“What is different now is it is happening in a different context and a different narrative,” said Fernando Garcia, director of the Border Network for Human Rights, an immigrant advocacy group.

VERONICA G. CARDENAS National Guard troops patrol the border Tuesday in Roma, Texas. Three border states have committed at least 1,600 troops after a request from President Donald Trump.