WASHINGTON–Dozens of House Democrats renewed calls last week for the Defense Department to investigate the legality of President Donald Trump’s decision to deploy thousands of active-duty and National Guard troops to the U.S-Mexico border.
The call comes 18 months after Trump sent guardsmen to help Border Patrol agents handle what he called a crisis at the border, and a year after he buttressed that effort by sending active-duty soldiers.
Democrats say that not only are the troops ill-equipped to handle border issues, but their deployment “militarizes” border communities and could violate a law that bars the use of military forces for domestic enforcement without congressional approval.
“This deployment raises serious concerns about the role our troops are playing on the border,” Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Tucson, said Friday. “It threatens to erode long-lasting norms that keep the functions of the U.S. military separate from domestic law enforcement.”
His comments came at a Capitol news conference where lawmakers and advocates pointed to a September letter signed by 34 Democratic House members that called on the Defense Department’s inspector general to investigate the deployments. That letter asked, among other things, for the level of training troops have received and the administration’s legal justification for the deployment.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment last Friday, Nov. 15. In a statement, the Pentagon said only that it received the Democrats’ letter in September and is “considering the request.”
But Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Prescott, defended Trump’s deployment of troops, saying it aligns with his campaign promises of securing the border.
“It’s refreshing to finally have a president who keeps his promises,” Gosar said in a statement Friday. “The number one priority should be securing our own country before trying to secure others.”
Calls to the Arizona National Guard and Gov. Doug Ducey’s office were not returned. But Ducey, who as governor had to order the troops to the border, was an early and vocal supporter of the move.
The Pentagon confirmed Friday that there were about 2,900 active-duty service members and another 2,200 National Guard troops along the southern border as of this week. Under rules of their deployment, the troops can perform support roles—stringing razor wire, providing transportation, participating in surveillance and other jobs—but are not supposed to engage migrants.
Trump first called for deployment of National Guard troops in April 2018. He said they would help the Department of Homeland Security tackle “illegal drugs, dangerous gang activity and extensive illegal immigration.” He followed that last November with the deployment of active-duty troops.
California and New Mexico balked, but Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Ducey quickly agreed to the deployment, which is federally funded. Ducey sent the first wave of 225 Arizona National Guard soldiers in April 2018, saying then that it was important to secure the southern border and do “what Washington has failed to do for too long.”
But residents of the border communities who spoke at Friday’s event on Capitol Hill told a different story, saying how the arrival of troops has affected their cities and their lives.
“I remember the unrelenting pain and fear that we felt that day of our country’s history,” said Mariam Iskajyan, program manager at the group Win Without War. “It was a dark day.”
Lawmakers at the event pointed repeatedly to a recent Southern Poverty Law Center report on leaked emails from Stephen Miller, an architect of the White House’s immigration policies, that claim to show Miller’s support for white nationalist theories. A White House official was quoted in published reports as calling the SPLC a “far-left smear organization.”
“You have that racist Stephen Miller in the White House, he has the ear of the president, then the president spews the racism that comes from Miller,” said Rep. Juan Vargas, D-Calif.
The Democrats say the military presence on the border is harming the communities, where there may be more soldiers than local police and where residents can face multiple checkpoints. That leads to a lack of business investment and it lowers morale in border communities across Arizona and other states, Grijalva said.
“You have now created a myth and a stereotype across this nation that somehow these communities on the border … are crime-infested, violent and dangerous places when they’re not,” Grijalva said after the event.
For more stories from Cronkite News, visit cronkitenews.azpbs.org.
This article appears in Nov 21-27, 2019.
That drunken idiot needs to crawl back under the rock he came from.
Hey Raul who slaughtered the American women and children last month in Mexico?
Raul believes that northward migration is a God-given right of all people living in the southern areas of the Western hemisphere and the will of the American people be damned. Once you realize that, his positions make sense.
There’s one important detail missed in this article: Trump did not deploy National Guard troops to the borders. State governors did. The vast majority of the federal laws referenced only apply to the NG when it is federally deployed.
The National Guard members at the border are still under state control; no Congressional approval is required. No federal regulations on how the NG can or cannot be used for law enforcement apply.
Cartels are now switching from drugs to avocados. We will soon have to block produce if the cartels are not contained and detained. Mexico is failing in their attempts to stem corruption.
Hey I know, let’s send them more American tax payer money.
Like every other institution in this country, the current occupant of the White House is undermining and destroying the U.S. military despite his staged gestures of support.
When he first came to power, he talked about his generals in his cabinet where are they now?
He has directed the use of highly skilled and trained military personnel to the border to perform menial tasks that demoralize troops and keep them away from their families not to mention diverting them from maintaining their primary skills and training levels.
He has diverted military funding for the construction of a wall that is a psychological prop for those peddling racially-motivated, hate-filled narratives designed to divert attention from Americas real enemies and actual threats.
He totally discounts the chain of command and the maintenance of good order and discipline by undercutting military leadership and the Uniformed Code of Military Justice for purely political reasons.
He orders Special Forces to abandon allies in the face of the enemy and allows those allies to be slaughtered or forced to look to other nations nations not friendly to the United States for support.
He has endangered South Korea, Japan, Australia and the entire region by indulging oppressive governments and ignoring the militarization of the Pacific by China.
He puts the lives of millions in Ukraine at risk, setting up a possible conflict that could involve NATO and U.S. armed forces, for the sake of political dirt, and on and on.
During the presidential debate Oct. 28, 1980, then Republican candidate Ronald Reagan stated, Ask yourself, ‘Are you better off now than you were four years ago?
I suggest you ask yourself if this country is safer than it was three years ago? Where does this country stand with its allies allies that this president has insulted and tried to shake down and extort at every opportunity — and would those same allies stand with us in light of this administrations active and tacit support of fascist and oppressive governments around the world.
hey sgs, keep making up stuff and explaining it with your emotions.
nobody who consistently votes, cares.
your not gonna get him without a super majority in the senate!
“hey sgs, keep making up stuff and explaining it with your emotions.”
As usual laddderflappy, you’re wrong.
sgs is not making anything up. He is presenting facts, you know, those pesky little things that your kind love to hate. Does him doing dat make your wittle wadddderfwapppy head hurt?
Just as you’re going to be told in the kitchen on Thanksgiving day: Get back to the kiddie table. The adults are having a grown up conversation.