National Guard to take up active role in border patrol

House Speaker John A. Boehner called on the President to deploy the National Guard to the border to help curb the surge of young undocumented immigrant children that has distracted the Border Patrol from being able to guard against smugglers and other dangers.

House Speaker John A. Boehner called on President Obama to deploy the National Guard to the border to help curb the surge of young undocumented immigrant children that has distracted the Border Patrol from guarding against smugglers and other dangers.

“The National Guard is uniquely qualified to respond to such humanitarian crises. They are able to help deal with both the needs of these children and families as well as relieve the border patrol to focus on their primary duty of securing our border,” Boehner wrote in a letter to Mr. Obama.

More than 90,000 unaccompanied minors are expected to be caught on the southwestern border this year, and more than 140,000 are expected next year.

This mission represents the latest incarnation of a once-controversial move to send National Guard soldiers to the U.S.-Mexico border to help the Border Patrol stem the tide of illegal immigration. It began in 2006 when then-President George W. Bush dispatched 6,000 National Guard soldiers to the border. Today, just 300 National Guard soldiers take part in the border mission.

However, the effort could be still be in jeopardy from a fierce fight over resources between the National Guard and the active-duty Army, as well as uncertainty surrounding an agreement with the Department of Homeland Security to keep the mission going.

The Army is seeking more than 100 Lakota helicopters, which conceivably could be squeezed from the National Guard, depending on what ultimately makes it into the national defense budget. Ironically, the cuts could come as the National Guard is more efficient than ever in finding immigrants and as illegal crossings into South Texas increase after a period of decline.

In 2010, President Barack Obama reactivated the border mission, ordering 1,200 National Guard troops to help patrol the border.

In Texas, those troops helped apprehend about 4,000 immigrants over 18 months. In the first 18 months of the airborne mission, which replaced the ground mission in March 2012, the National Guard is credited with helping apprehend 10 times as many.