President Obama is reportedly removing three quarters of the National Guard servicemembers patrolling the United States border with Mexico, as the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that they will increase aerial border security.
“With additional DHS civilian law enforcement assets, including a record number of U.S. Border Patrol agents, now in place, the DOD mission at the border will transition as part of a new strategic approach,” said DHS and DOD in a statement about 2012 border security policy, “adding a number of new multi-purpose aerial assets equipped with the latest surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities.”
House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, criticized the Departments for pulling troops off the border, adding that they will cut the National Guard presence from 1,200 servicemembers to 300. “If the Obama administration’s goal is border security, their actions undermine their objective,” Smith said in a statement. “It doesn’t make sense to take National Guard troops off the border when less than half of the border is secure.”
The announcement of the drawdown comes within a week of DHS ending the federal law enforcement authority of Sheriff Joseph Arpaio of Maricopa County, Ariz., after the Department of Justice (DOJ) accused him of “discrimination against Latinos.” DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano said that federal agents would enforce illegal immigration laws by “focus[ing] our resources on criminal aliens, recent border crossers, repeat and egregious immigration law violators and employers who knowingly hire illegal labor.”
