New Mexico Has No Plans To Send National Guard Troops To Border

July 22, 2014 6:09 AM

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico has no plans to send National Guard troops to the international border to deal with an influx of children and families from Central America trying to enter the country illegally, Gov. Susana Martinez’s administration said Monday.

The governor has been closely monitoring the border situation but there’s no immediate plan to deploy the National Guard on a state mission to the border with Mexico, Martinez spokesman Enrique Knell said.

His comments came after Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced up to 1,000 troops would be sent to the Texas-Mexico border.

Knell said in a statement that Martinez “does believe there is a role for the National Guard in protecting our border.”

There are about two dozen National Guard troops on a federal mission to assist the Border Patrol with counter-drug operations, including surveillance, according to Capt. Brian Raphael, a spokesman for the New Mexico National Guard.

Knell said Martinez disagreed with federal decisions in 2008 and 2012 to stop funding programs that had National Guard troops supporting the Border Patrol with non-law enforcement duties to help deal with border violence.

On Saturday, Martinez toured a temporary detention facility in Artesia for several hundred immigrant women and children who are to be deported soon to Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. The governor said a comprehensive federal immigration plan is needed to stop the surge of immigrants.

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