A Republican congressman who served alongside the National Guard on the U.S.-Mexico border this month is warning that the decision by some states to remove guardsmen will lead to a new wave of illegal immigration that will be “massive” in scale.
Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a lieutenant colonel and pilot in Wisconsin’s National Guard, said fewer troops in border states will prompt more migrants who might have applied for asylum at ports of entry or in their home country to instead pay cartels to get them into the United States. He warned that reducing border troops will make it easier for cartels to smuggle them through.
“Those people turn around and pay the cartel money and make the journey, and some of them end up getting abandoned by the cartel and abandoned in the desert,” Kinzinger said in an interview with the Washington Examiner. “If you secure the border … they’re going to come here the legal way.”
“I’m moderate on immigration,” he continued. “I just think securing the border is the humane answer.”
Kinzinger just returned from a two-week stint flying a surveillance reconnaissance aircraft in the desert near Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector.
The rest of his fellow guardsmen were called back home to Wisconsin as a result of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ order earlier this week. Evers said there was no justification for the 112 guardsmen his predecessor, Republican Scott Walker, had deployed last June after President Trump called for troops to help federal law enforcement as a caravan approached.
But Kinzinger said Democrats’ reasoning for pulling troops is unfounded and even ironic.
“Democrats say ‘we don’t want, a wall we want tech,’” said the congressman. “The National Guard is the tech. They’re, in many cases, the cameras. They’re the eyes and ears.”
Border Patrol, which mans the land between ports of entry, relies on Air and Marine Operations, another Customs and Border Protection component, for intelligence and reconnaissance from the sky.
Since last April, National Guard deployed to the southern border have freed up agents to go to the field while the troops watch cameras, monitor sensors, take up choppers and planes to tip off the patrol when they spot human activity in remote areas. They also brought military helicopters and aircraft to the border with them, boosting CBP’s resources.
“They love the guard,” Kinzinger said about Border Patrol. “They really believe in what they’re doing. One of the guys here told me, ‘It’s disheartening when people talk about us like we’re the Gestapo … We’re here to protect Americans. It’s really hard work.’”
Around 2,100 National Guard remain on the border as of Wednesday. A total 60,000 employees work for CBP.
