President Trump has ordered the National Guard to secure the U.S.-Mexico border in the absence of congressional action on immigration, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Wednesday.
“The president has directed that the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security work together with our government to deploy the National Guard to our Southwest border to assist the border patrol,” Nielsen told reporters at the White House. “The president will be signing a proclamation to that effect today.”
Nielsen said the White House had drafted legislation that would close “loopholes” in immigration laws, such as the requirements for immigrants seeking asylum in the U.S.
Homeland Security officials cited figures showing the number of undocumented immigrants requesting asylum in the U.S. due to “credible fear” of their home countries had jumped 1,700 percent between 2008 and 2016, suggesting more people have attempted to exploit leniency in the system to gain entry.
The plan to send National Guard troops to the border, Nielsen said, was meant to keep illegal immigration levels low until lawmakers could address the problem legislatively.
“We do hope that the deployment begins immediately,” Nielsen said.
Senior administration officials said the White House would soon send lawmakers its legislative package, which they hoped to see Congress take up by this summer.
“In the spring, summer, the issue of border security is probably going to be one of the biggest issues on Congress’s plate,” one official said. “That level of attention is going to make it very possible to pass border security legislation.”
Passing immigration reform has proven difficult in the months since Trump tasked lawmakers with codifying an Obama-era immigration program he attempted to end by early March. A court has temporarily blocked his efforts to wind down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which Republicans had hoped to use as a bargaining chip to secure new limits on legal immigration and funding for Trump’s border wall.
But administration officials said they now hope to see Congress advance a stand-alone package of immigration reforms that will add new restrictions to the legal immigration process and strengthen border security, something lawmakers may struggle to accomplish close to an election.
The precise timing of the deployment will depend on decisions made by the governors of border states, Nielsen noted, because those governors will remain in control of their states’ respective National Guards.
“We have specified out the missions where we need support,” she said.
National Guard troops will perform “aerial surveillance” and “support functions” in conjunction with existing border patrol agents, Nielsen noted.
The Homeland Security chief declined to specify how many troops the administration would ask states to send to the border.
“It will be strong. It will be as many as is needed to fill the gaps that we have today,” Nielsen said.
Administration officials would not provide further details about what the National Guard troops will do when they arrive at the border out of fear that smugglers could use that information to evade them.
“We want to avoid revealing any operational details at this time since smuggling and trafficking organizations are very sophisticated,” one official said.
Trump announced on Tuesday that he planned to send troops to the Southern border because Congress had failed to approve his requests for stronger border security measures, including for the construction of his promised wall.
“Until we can have a wall and proper security, we are going to be guarding our border with the military,” Trump said before a meeting with Baltic leaders. “That’s a big step. We really haven’t done that before, and certainly not very much before.”
Congress appropriated $1.6 billion for initial construction of the wall, which began immediately after Trump signed the spending bill. Nielsen said Wednesday that the sum would pay for 150 miles of “new” wall, while Trump said Tuesday that he ultimately hoped to build 700 to 800 miles of wall.
The president hinted earlier Wednesday that the White House would soon unveil a plan to strengthen border security without the help of Congress.
Frustrated with the relatively small amount of border wall funding Congress included in the omnibus spending bill lawmakers passed last month, Trump recently floated the idea of using Pentagon funds to construct the wall.
