Trump Sent the National Guard to the Southern Border, So How’s It Going?

If you’ve been keeping up, you know I don’t often agree with the actions of President Donald Trump. That doesn’t mean I’m 100 percent against anything he does, simply because he’s Donald Trump.

On the contrary, there have been decisions he’s made that I wholeheartedly supported, and said so.

One such decision was his announcement that he’d be sending U.S. National Guard troops to the southern border to assist Border Patrol.

 “We’re going to do some things militarily,” Trump said. “Until we can have a wall and proper security, we’re going to be guarding our border with the military.”

I absolutely applauded that. I’ve long touted the Texas Governor Rick Perry-approved plan for border security: More boots on the ground, strategic fencing, and aviation assets patrolling the border from overhead, with a direct line to fast responders on the ground, ready to go.

What I didn’t know about sending National Guard troops to the border is that they wouldn’t have the same authority as Border Patrol agents. That was my ignorance of what they could and couldn’t do. Their presence there has been all but completely meaningless, so just more smoke and mirrors from Trump.

Trump boasted of his unprecedented move to secure the border, but he wasn’t the first to do it.

Where Trump has sent about 4,000 to the border, former President Obama sent 1,200 under similar circumstances.

Former President George W. Bush sent 6,000.

What is different about Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops to the border?

Those troops are being kept further away from the actual border.

They have no authority. Their role is to do menial tasks that free up the Border Patrol agents to do other things.

They’re the help.

I guess we could refer to them as having a “supporting role” and it wouldn’t sound as demeaning, but it doesn’t change the fact that Trump’s tough talk of sending National Guard troops to the border was more nonsense.

And to be fair, maybe he didn’t realize they would be limited. I certainly didn’t realize that.

Now that they’re there, what are they doing?

At least in one of the most corrupted and trafficked areas in Arizona, it would appear they’re “keeping up the rear.”

“That is the biggest difference from last time, when they sent soldiers to a hill and said, ‘Hey, look towards the border,’” Capt. Macario Mora of the Arizona National Guard explained to me on a recent visit to the Border Patrol’s Douglas Station, which is responsible for 40 miles of the mountainous border and nearly 1,500 square miles that includes Douglas — population about 17,000 — and its urban terrain of ramshackle homes, warehouses and junkyards.

“There is a false narrative that we are doing ride-alongs,” Mora said. Indeed, the troops are not permitted to take part in patrols or to participate in any operations to detain the men, women and children being trafficked by criminal organizations across the border or trying to slip undetected into Douglas.

None of the troops are even armed — “and there is no anticipation that will change,” Mora told me.

What they’re doing is feeding the horses of the Border Patrol agents and shoveling manure from the stalls.

Other soldiers, like Sgt. Jonathan Sanchez, 35, a cook, are performing maintenance on the Border Patrol’s heavily used vehicles.

“We fix flats,” he explained on a steamy afternoon after completing his shift in the motor pool a few miles north of town.

Really?

To be fair, with the proper clearance, some are given positions in a control room, monitoring remote cameras set up along the border.

A few National Guard helicopters and crew have also been enlisted to join the Border Patrol fleet for aerial surveillance, but more troops are clearing vegetation, serving as office clerks and making basic repairs to Border Patrol facilities.

According to Supervisory Agent Juan Curbelo, there’s a reason they keep the National Guard troops a safe distance away from the border.

Smugglers and Cartel members are always watching, scouting, and coming up with more sophisticated ways of getting past Border Patrol. Sometimes they are violent. Border Patrol feels there is too much potential for deadly confrontation in what is essentially a delicate law enforcement manner to allow for part-time warriors to participate.

They fear such confrontations could result in civilian deaths or international incidents, due to the inexperience of those troops.

A major union representing about 15,000 Border Patrol Agents has been the most vocal, calling the decision to limit what the troops can do “a colossal waste.”

Last time, said Brandon Judd, the Border Patrol Council’s president, “they were allowed to do a lot more than they are under the Trump administration. They were allowed to be in lookout and observation posts. They were allowed to be out grading the roads and mending fences. They were allowed to be our eyes and ears, freeing us up.”

The current efforts are being funded out of the Pentagon budget through September. It’s unknown if it will continue, after that.

The upside is that some of these National Guard troops are being recruited and may actually end up as official Border Patrol agents.

Ultimately, it would seem that that is what is needed most. More boots on the ground with more authority and training, not just a lot of extra personnel to do “busy work.”