The 1,200 National Guard troops expected to arrive Sunday on the southwest border for reinforcement won’t finish deploying until late September, federal officials say, stirring confusion and anger among Arizona lawmakers who thought the deadline was Aug. 1.
The President said back in May he would send National Guard troops to the border where violence and drug smuggling is out of control. Many called for a military presence along the U.S-Mexico border to assist border patrol agents as Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed a controversial law making illegal immigration a state crime — a policy that a judge weakened last week in federal court. They (The White House stated they would start deploying the troops August 1st but it seems the total of 1200 will not be deployed until close to the end of September. Also that the Troops will not be on the Boarder but more in the Administration? I say whatever, but we need to physically close the Border. Once they are closed to illegal immigration the easier it will be to control Legal immigration as far as the ones that are here they need to turn themselves in and get legal, If they cannot, then go home until they can come here legally.
Reported on Fox News: “This administration seems to promise a lot and then when you get into the fine print, it just doesn’t happen,” said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who has called for 6,000 National Guard troops. I think we should double that number. Lets give US citizens the Job if nothing else, Long as there is armed troops to protect them from the cartel that seems to be causing all the issues. If a US citizen was given the power to stand watch and turn the Illegal Immigrants back at the border then we could control the numbers better.
Asked whether he had been briefed on what role the troops would play, McCain said, “We have not been briefed, and we have asked for briefing both in writing and verbally, and the answer is,’we’ll get back to you.’”
Homeland Security expressed surprise about the confusion.
“Troops will be there this Sunday as planned,” a Homeland Security spokesman said. “This is the beginning deployment stage. There is a ramp-up time and troops will be trained. Nothing has changed in our world.”
But the National Guard Bureau in Virginia says the date has been “over interpreted” and they’ve always had 90 days to reach full deployment across the southern border states.
A spokesperson for the Arizona National Guard said the application process is now beginning.
Arizona officials, including Brewer, said this is yet one more example of the federal government not making border security a top priority.
The National Guard plan has already been criticized by border-state lawmakers as too weak to make a dent in border security challenges and sparked concern that the 1,200 who are deployed would be relegated to desk jobs.
According to the Obama administration, nearly half of the troops will be sent to the volatile Arizona-Mexico border. A total of 524 will be stationed in Arizona, with 250 in Texas, 224 in California and 72 in New Mexico. An additional 130 will serve in “command-and-control” and other support positions.
Fox News‘ Casey Stegall contributed to this report.
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