SC sending troops to join Trump's illegal immigration efforts at Texas border

BY EMILY BOHATCH
May 11, 2018 12:26 PM

Updated 3 hours 19 minutes ago

After President Donald Trump announced a plan to deploy National Guard troops to help fight illegal immigration on Mexico's border in April, S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster offered to join the effort.

Nine S.C. Army National Guard troops are scheduled to join the forces at the Mexican border next week, according to a statement from the governor's office.

The crew, which is based at Donaldson Center in Greenville, will arrive in Austin, Texas, around May 19, according to the statement. An additional crew will join them next month.

"Our soldiers are well-trained and experienced with this mission, as they have conducted border security support previously in 2012 and 2016 as well as with Operation Jump Start in 2007," said U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Robert E. Livingston Jr., adjutant general for South Carolina.

South Carolina also is sending a UH-72A Lakota helicopter from the 2-151 Security and Support Aviation Battalion, according to the statement. The helicopter is used mostly for aerial surveillance and transportation.

Crew members will be flying whatever support missions they're asked to cover.

Though states sharing borders with Mexico have pledged hundreds of troops to the cause, states farther away offered deployments similar to South Carolina's. Arkansas deployed 10 troops and two helicopters to New Mexico, the Harrison Daily Times reported.

Trump announced he plans to send upwards of 4,000 National Guard troops to the border.

This isn't the first time South Carolina's National Guard members have assisted at the border. In the 1990s, engineers helped construct portions of the existing border wall, according to the statement. Troops also have participated in other missions through the years.

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