The deployment of National Guard troops to the southern border has been “years in the making,” dating back two decades, yet President Joe Biden has largely kept his requests for help on the down-low, unlike previous administrations.
Former President Donald Trump was “very vocal” about sending troops to the border, Washington Examiner Homeland Security Reporter Anna Giaritelli said Tuesday on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal.
BLUE OREGON AMONG 20 STATES DEPLOYING MILITARY TO SOUTHERN BORDER AMID CRISIS
The Defense Department requested 2,500 National Guard members from states earlier this summer to help law enforcement detect human and drug smuggling operations.
Both Democratic- and Republican-governed states have signed on to the border security mission. Their deployments will last about 400 days, bringing troops home sometime before Thanksgiving 2023.
“These are fairly long deployments for being domestic,” Giaritelli said.
But while they will help to apprehend people, they will not be making any arrests like in Texas, she added.
“It is a way to get Border Patrol back out into the field … where they can be apprehending people that are of a serious concern,” Giaritelli said.
Tom Homan, the former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said 70% of the 20,000 patrol agents have been pulled from the field and are helping process transport and watch over people in custody.
The number of encounters at the southern border under Biden, around 3.6 million, has increased due in part to the pandemic. COVID-19 fueled migration and brought people from countries such as Nicaragua and Venezuela.
These authoritarian governments are different than Mexico because they are “not taking back their citizens from the United States,” Giaritelli said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID-19 recommendations have also led to more people being released in the United States, merely pleading for them to “please show up to court one day,” she added.
Trump’s Title 42, or “Remain in Mexico” policy, has also allowed Border Patrol agents to apprehend illegal immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border and send them back. It’s a fairly quick process that takes less than an hour.
The Biden administration has fought against it, arguing that deployments for aggravated felons, spies, and people on the terror watch list should take priority.
Republicans have used this platform to say Democrats support an “open border” policy. “Under Trump, we were seeing 80-90% of people turned away. Under Biden, we’re down to about 30% of people being turned away,” she added.
Part of the problem is the Biden administration’s lack of understanding, she said. Biden has not been to the border once in his five decades in public office.
“I’ve been down to the border on 46 trips in the last five years. I’ve never seen anything like this. That is without behind given access inside Border Patrol, ICE, and health and human services facilities where unaccompanied children are kept,” Giaritelli said.
“It’s hard to understand what it is like unless you’re seeing it,” she added.
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When asked about visa overstays, Giaritelli said Congress has made it easier to track illegal immigrants, but ICE lacks the will to do so due to being understaffed.
“ICE isn’t going knocking on over 10 million peoples’ doors anytime soon,” Giaritelli said.
