White House asks governors to send National Guard units to border

The Trump administration is asking border-state governors to send National Guard units to the Southwestern border, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Wednesday.

“The president is frustrated” over continued illegal immigration, Nielsen said. “He has been very clear that he wants to secure our border.”

National Guard personnel would not be allowed to arrest people crossing the border, but could provide support to the Border Patrol, much as happened in 2006 under the Bush administration, and in 2010 under the Obama administration, Nielsen said.

The number of people apprehended crossing the border illegally plummeted in the initial months of the Trump administration, a change that administration officials have repeatedly touted. But in recent months, Nielsen said, officials have seen the numbers begin to climb again.

Smuggling gangs “paused” after Trump took office, but “they saw that our ability to actually remove” people who cross the border illegally “did not keep pace,” Nielsen said.

“They saw there were loopholes” that could be exploited, she added.

Whether National Guard units would actually assist with that problem is unclear — Nielsen blamed much of the uptick in illegal crossings on an increase in the number of people from Central American countries who cross the border, surrender to the Border Patrol and say they fear persecution at home and ask for asylum.

Nielsen, saying that many of those asylum claims are fraudulent, said the administration would once again ask Congress to change immigration law to allow faster processing of claims and speedier deportations.