Guard troops to arrive on border Aug. 1
About 250 National Guard troops are expected to arrive in Texas next month as part of a deployment to the Southwest border to fight the flow of illegal immigrants and smuggled narcotics.
About 1,200 troops will begin arriving in border states on Aug. 1 to provide intelligence and surveillance support to law enforcement agencies, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said at a press conference in Washington. The troops will provide direct support to federal law enforcement officers working to disrupt the criminal organizations.
The temporary deployment will serve as a stop-gap measure until U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement can recruit and train additional agents included in a $700 million funding request recently passed out of the U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, said.
“I believe this will strengthen our multi-layered approach to combat narcotics, weapons and human smuggling,” said Cuellar, the chair of the Homeland Security subcommittee that oversees border issues. “As drug-related violence persists in neighboring Mexico, this is one more step we’re taking to ensure the safety of our border states who face a unique exposure to drug-related violence and illegal activity.”
Some state leaders, including Gov. Rick Perry, welcomed the plan in May when President Barack Obama authorized the deployment, but later criticized it when details were leaked a month later. Perry felt the Obama administration was not planning on sending enough troops to Texas, which has 1,200 miles of the 1,900-mile long border.
Nearly half the troops – 524 -- will be based in Arizona, where a recently-enacted immigration law has embroiled the state in controversy. California will receive 224 troops while about 130 serve as command and control and other support.
New Mexico will share its allotment of 72 troops with El Paso.
Napolitano and the chief of the National Guard Bureau stressed that the troops will not be directly involved with law enforcement activities but instead will augment the work of those agents already located on the border.
The guardsmen will integrate into existing security operations. Most will assist with border surveillance to find drug traffickers or illegal immigrants while others will serve as intelligence analysts to support the federal law enforcement agencies.
During a trip to Laredo last week, Napolitano announced $47 million in federal grants to help pay for overtime and other costs incurred by local law enforcement personnel agencies.
The U.S. House of Representatives also passed a supplemental funding bill that included $700 million to hire new Border Patrol agents, improve communications systems and pay for two unmanned aerial vehicles that could patrol the border.
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Jared Janes covers Hidalgo County government, Edinburg and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4424.
