Texas sends 250 National Guard troops to Mexico border

[rooster59]

Texas sends 250 National Guard troops to Mexico border

By Brendan O'Brien

 

A border patrol agent guards a gap in the Mexico-U.S. border fence in the Rio Grande Valley sector, near McAllen, Texas, U.S., April 5, 2018. REUTERS/Loren Elliott

 

(Reuters) - The Texas National Guard has begun deploying troops to help secure the state's southern border with Mexico as President Donald Trump has been unable to get the U.S. Congress or Mexico to fully fund his proposed wall along the border.

 

The deployment, announced on Friday by Texas officials, comes after Trump directed Defence Secretary James Mattis to request the use of National Guard personnel to help the Department of Homeland Security secure the border in four southwestern U.S. states, including Texas.

 

Mattis on Friday authorized the funding for up to 4,000 National Guard troops for the operation through Sept. 30, a Department of Defence memo showed.

 

The troops will be under the "command and control" of their respective governors, it said.

 

Trump has failed so far to persuade either the Mexican government or the U.S. Congress to fully fund a wall he wants to build along the border. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on Thursday sharply rebuked Trump over the plan.

 

The Texas Army National Guard said 250 guardsmen along with aircraft, vehicles and surveillance equipment were to be deployed along the state's border with Mexico within the next 72 hours.

 

Exact details of the mission, including the total number of troops to be deployed and the cost, were yet to be determined, Brigadier General Tracy Norris, commander of the Texas Army National Guard, told a news conference.

 

The National Guard has operated along the border for decades. About 100 members of the Texas Military Department are currently assigned along the border in an "observe and report" role, Norris noted.

 

In Arizona, some 150 National Guard members will be sent to the border next week, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey said in a Tweet on Friday.

 

The Department of Homeland Security has identified security vulnerabilities that could be addressed by the National Guard, Mattis and Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen said in a joint statement on Friday.

 

Nielsen said this week that the troops would not be involved in law enforcement.

 

In a supporting role, possibly for aerial reconnaissance, the Guard will help U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel with stopping illegal immigrants from entering the country, Nielsen said.

 

In keeping with a theme he often invoked as a candidate in 2016 and has continually returned to since taking office, Republican Trump has sharpened his anti-immigrant rhetoric, warning that illegal immigrants threaten U.S. safety and jobs.

 

"It sounds to me more like political rhetoric than something that is actually needed on our border," Representative Vicente Gonzalez, a Texas Democrat whose district includes the border city of McAllen, told the New York Times.

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-04-07

[jobwolf]

Sounds like an ant is attacking an ant eater.

 

[ToddinChonburi]

I think it's time to conduct war games along the southern border and invite some of our allies to join in on the fun.

[jenny2017]

Trump has failed so far to persuade either the Mexican government or the U.S. Congress to fully fund a wall he wants to build along the border. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on Thursday sharply rebuked Trump over the plan.

 

  It's easy to understand that Mexico won't pay for a $ 33 billion wall. With or without mines?  

[Srikcir]

17 hours ago, rooster59 said:

Mattis on Friday authorized the funding for up to 4,000 National Guard troops for the operation through Sept. 30

This likely will come out of the U.S. Army's Readiness budget. Might better be spent on its South Korea, Afghanistan and Syrian missions.

Does Texas need any National Guard added to "secure" its border with Mexico?

Comments from Sheriff Tom Schmerber of Maverick County, Texas:

http://www.stltoday.com/news/national/border-sheriff-guard-deployment-unnecessary/html_3b1422ab-ce23-5bff-a8de-9453c16765c5.html

 

 

[metisdead]

A troll post has been removed. 

[ChouDoufu]

don't know if any'a y'all have ever been to the us-mexico border.  in many places it simply isn't.  the photos/video you see on the news are mainly from the easily accessible areas in/near major cities or official border crossing points.

 

once out in the wilderness there are endless miles of unprotected border.  the only evidence of a border are the 3-foot metal stakes driven into the ground every 20 feet or so, and the three strands of barbed wire torn down lying in the dirt.  that and a dusty dirt road running through the mesquite along the mostly unmarked border.

 

embedded photo (from googles, getty images) is what you'll find.  not enough border patrol agents to make a difference.

[Andaman Al]

18 hours ago, rooster59 said:

A border patrol agent guards a gap in the Mexico-U.S. border fence in the Rio Grande Valley sector, near McAllen, Texas, U.S., April 5, 2018. REUTERS/Loren Elliott

That photo and the caption made me laugh out loud. How to portray the border patrol as being as dumb as rocks ! So we (and the border patrol) are to believe that with two thousand miles of border the Mexican rapists and murderers will funnel through a gap in a 200 meter stretch of fence. No wonder there is a problem with illegals still crossing over the border.

[ChouDoufu]

how hard is it to cross undetected?  in nought-five while living in tucson, drove out to organ pipe national monument, set up in the campground a few km from the border.  next morning stocked up on water and snacks and started walking.  easy enough to follow the hundreds of paths used by illegals, just followed the trails of discarded clothing, knapsacks, and water jugs.

 

maybe an hour (was a while ago) to reach the border, similar to photo above but no barbed wire.  went to mexico, returned, went back, returned.  too easy.  started walking east, another hour to find the only border agent that day.  very busy in his new jeep - windows up, ac running, reading newspaper.  still no wall at that point.  another hour, and reached a small border crossing station where highway 85 cuts through the park to mexico.  metal turnstile next to small building with 20-foot high chain link fence.  fence extended about 50 feet either side of the building.  to either side of that there were lengths of railroad track placed vertically every 20 feet with one lenth of track welded at about 3 foot height to prevent vehicle crossings, with chain link fence to about 6 foot high.  this extended out at most 200 feet, where the 3- strand wire pictured above began, but was torn down within a hundred feet.  amazingly, someone bothered to cut holes in the 6-foot high chain link.

[Expatthailover]

In 2010 obama ordered 1200 NG to the border.

250..pfft  a mere bagatelle.

 

[ChouDoufu]

current plan is for 2-4 thousand national guard, if the governers of the individual states don't "resist."