N.M. governor withdraws most National Guard troops from border

NM governor withdraws most National Guard troops from border

BY RAFAEL BERNAL - 02/05/19 08:24 PM EST 151

5,110

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© Greg Nash

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) on Tuesday ordered the withdrawal of most New Mexico National Guard troops assigned to the state's southern border.

Lujan Grisham said some troops would remain in the southwest part of the state to provide humanitarian aid assistance for migrants and asylum-seekers who have arrived in recent weeks.

“I reject the federal contention that there exists an overwhelming national security crisis at the southern border, along which are some of the safest communities in the country," said Lujan Grisham in a statement Tuesday. "However, I recognize and appreciate the legitimate concerns of residents and officials in southwestern New Mexico, particularly Hidalgo County, who have asked for our assistance, as migrants and asylum-seekers continue to appear at their doorstep."

In addition to withdrawing the majority of troops, the governor asked Arkansas, Kansas, Kentucky, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Wisconsin to pull out their troops who were ordered to the border by President Trump in October.

A total of 118 troops were deployed, mostly in a support role to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, a division of the Department of Homeland Security.

Lujan Grisham made the announcement just a few hours before Trump is slated to deliver his State of the Union address, when border security is expected to come up.

“Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is strategic. It wouldn’t surprise me that she timed this release to send a direct message to the president,” a senior Democratic aide told The Hill.

Lujan Grisham's office said state National Guard leadership would assess whether the military presence is needed in southwestern New Mexico, particularly Hidalgo County.

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-w...ps-from-border

N.M. Gov. orders NM, AR, KS, KY, NH, SC, WI National Guard troops off her border

500 Texas state troopers sent to the border

Nogales Mayor Wants Border Razor Wire Down

This is what you can expect with a Democrat Governor.

These politicians who want open borders need to be sent down there to LIVE in a tent for 30 days by themselves with no guards!

Caravan Migrants Stalled at Texas Border Eye Other Routes

U.S. to boost troops at border as Lujan Grisham pulls out Guard members

• By Andrew Oxford | aoxford@sfnewmexican.com

• Feb 6, 2019 Updated 8 min ago

The federal government is sending more troops to the U.S. border with Mexico just as Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham pulls back New Mexico National Guard personnel from the state’s southern frontier.

But the Department of Defense is not saying whether any of 3,750 additional troops headed to the border will come to New Mexico.

“The specific units and locations are still being finalized,” Maj. Mark Lazane said Wednesday.

“We hope to release that information when it becomes available, but we aren’t able to do so at this time.”

The move, which President Donald Trump touted in his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, will raise the number of military personnel on the border to around 4,350.

The federal government sent soldiers to the border just a few days before last year’s election following a request from Customs and Border Protection for help with logistics, transportation and engineering.

The additional forces will help with what the Department of Defense described in a statement Sunday as mobile surveillance and the placement of about 150 miles of concertina wire — coils of barbed or razor wire — between ports of entry.

New Mexico was not included when the federal government sent the first wave of troops to the border late last year.

And that was just as well for some border residents who said a military presence did not seem necessary along the state’s sparsely populated stretch of the frontier.

But large groups of asylum-seekers have turned to Antelope Wells during recent months, overwhelming the small and isolated border outpost nestled in the Bootheel.

Lujan Grisham said Tuesday she is keeping a contingent of more than a dozen National Guard troops in Hidalgo County.

And on Wednesday, the governor said she also will send public health officials and personnel from the state Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management to help in the area.

But the issue, she emphasized, is a humanitarian one.


Lujan Grisham is pulling back most of the National Guard troops her predecessor, Susana Martinez, sent to the border last year as Trump sought to build a military presence in the region that could step up assistance to the Border Patrol.

Lujan Grisham told reporters Wednesday that federal officials had given her little justification for keeping the troops along much of New Mexico’s more than 200-mile stretch of the frontier.

“The only justification, quite frankly, they gave me was that having the National Guard deployed was good for the economy,” she said. “… That’s not the role of the National Guard.”

Some residents of the sparsely populated Bootheel have raised concerns that the area has been poorly secured for too long.

“This isn’t new that those remote ranchers have some risk. They do,” Lujan Grisham said. “They absolutely do. So, where has Border Patrol been over the last few decades?”

While Trump has called for a wall, Lujan Grisham said she would prefer security measures suited to particular areas and basic aid to law enforcement like road maintenance.

“Give us some investments that deal with some of these remote areas,” she said, “including more bollard fencing and barrier protections based on what that community tells us will make a difference in conjunction with Border Patrol.”

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/new...debc6cc08.html

Send our military tanks and bulldozers and let our military start to clear the path and brush for the barriers.

This would help the Border Patrol where there is thick brush and provide them with a clear trail.

Bulldoze a 1 mile buffer zone where we can.

Gov. Hutchinson moves Arkansas National Guard on New Mexico border to Texas border