Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen announced at the White House press briefing on Wednesday that the Trump administration intends to send members of the National Guard to bolster security at the United States’ southern border.
“The President has directed the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security to work together with the governors to deploy the National Guard to the southwest border to assist border patrol,” she said. “The President will be signing a proclamation to that effect today.”
She did not disclose how many troops would be sent, nor the cost of the endeavor, but asserted that they would be deployed “immediately.” She added that, at this point in the plan, the troops are intended to operate in a support, not enforcement, capacity.
But what about the bigly Donnie Dotard military parade? Will that be on the border now if that’s where all the troops will be?
This is another example of Trump jacking with folks to get a political point. The national Guard is composed of citizen soldiers most of which hold regular civilian jobs. If you deploy them you force them away from those jobs and their families. Many employers will pay the Guardsman while he or she is gone but some don’t. It’s a huge hassle to be deployed.
What state’s National Guardsmen will have the honor of being pulled away from their families and their jobs to protect us from a trickle of impoverished brown people? I’m sure they will be delighted.
While I think this is an excellent idea, the NG’s should be commissioned as Federal Law Enforcement Officers, like many Coast Guardsmen, with arrest powers. The idea of “support troops” means standing around doing nothing, as opposed to actively interdicting illeagals. Sad.
Security theater at its finest…this will make all the conservative papers and Sinclair broadcasts. It gives the impression troops are at the border, ready to lay down machine gun fire on the invading hordes. When it turns out it’s a couple hundred soldiers who are just there to assist the Border Patrol with some logistical stuff that will get buried. It’s all just posturing to try to get Republicans out to vote in November, nothing more.