Immigration

Texas, Arizona Send Small Number of National Guard Troops to the Border

Written by SK Ashby

Trump has called for deploying up to 4,000 National Guard service members to the border, but it looks like states will only deploy a couple hundred.

Arizona and Texas have both agreed to summon the Guard, but their current head count stands at around 400.

Arizona was the first of the four southwest border states to specify the number of soldiers that would be sent in support of the Trump administration's operation when the state's Republican governor, Doug Ducey, said 150 troops would be deployed next week.

Brigadier General Tracy Norris of the Texas National Guard said 250 troops would also be sent in the next 72 hours in response. Notifications would be sent out to troops Saturday so they could notify their families and employers about their deployment orders, she said.

Although the Guard will report for duty this week, no one knows what they'll be doing yet.

Neither the White House, the Department of Homeland Security, or Customs and Border Control have been able to detail what the Guard will be asked to do because it hasn't been decided yet. They're working backwards from Trump's orders and scrambling to find a reason or task to justify their presence. The cart is before the horse.

They also haven't detailed how this operation will be paid for.