PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey said Monday that 225 members of the state’s National Guard were heading to the U.S.-Mexico to support President Donald Trump’s call for troops to fight drug trafficking and illegal immigration.
More of the state’s Guard members will be deployed on Tuesday, said Ducey, a Republican.
The Arizona troops were being sent after Texas announced Friday it would send 250 National Guard members and helicopters took the first of them to the border.
Trump said last week he wants to send 2,000 to 4,000 National Guard members to the border.
New Mexico’s Republican governor 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 the state’s Guard members will participate.
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’s approval.
It said “arming will be limited to circumstances that might require self-defense” but idid not further define that.
After plunging at the start of Trump’s presidency, the numbers of migrants apprehended at the southwest border have started to rise in line with historical trends.
The Border Patrol said it caught around 50,000 people in March, more than three times the number in March 2017.
That’s erased a decline for which Trump repeatedly took credit. Border apprehensions still remain well below the numbers when former Presidents George W. Bush and Barrack Obama deployed the Guard to the border.
As best as I surmise the role of Nat’l Guard troops will be limited to having their thumb up their ass with one hand while the other points at something suspicious and says “Oooh, oooh, over there!”
If the good citizens of Arizona are anything like those in Maricopa County I’m sure they won’t mind paying for this boondoggle. After all, they happily paid well over $70 million in fines and settlements for the pleasure of having criminally convicted Joe Arpayaso as its head outlaw/county mountie.
Every single Democrat and member of the media interviewing or questioning a Republican regarding any aspect of the wall should start by asking “When are Trump’s promised funds from Mexico for construction of the wall being remitted to our treasury?”
“Tango Bravo 29, this is Tango Bravo 26, do you have any threes? Over.”
Tango Bravo 26, Tango Bravo 29, go fish. Over."
Dear TPMers not from California (I know you are out there, because all the good comments are already posted by the time I get up and log on):
Please start stockpiling thoughts and prayers for those of us in California.
With the governors of TX, NM, and AZ all sending troops to the border, California becomes the big, soft, National Guard–free target. The massive (and, apparently, stealthy) immigrant crime spree that has been decimating border areas in the US will now concentrate on California.
I’ve been a lame prepper – no bunker, no armory, no barrels of dried food and canned goods – but I am preparing as well as I can with what I have. I’ve sharpened several kitchen knives, and we have a persistently large amount of leftover Easter ham in the refrigerator. My phone, cordless drill, and cordless weed whacker are all fully charged. One toilet is clogged today, but we still have two in working order. I think I will be okay, but I worry about my neighbors, my community, and my state. That is where you, and your thoughts and prayers, come in. Please help us survive this.
Oh, wait…there’s one more line on the back of they script they gave me: “I want to assure you that many of California’s 40 million residents are not crisis actors, and my agent tells me that Soros’ people never hire anyone they don’t already know.”