Congressman John Joyce: Mexico’s National Guard is going to help secure the border, our states should follow suit

Congressman John Joyce: Mexico's National Guard is going to help secure the border, our states should follow suit
PennLive

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Last week, President Trump made the point that Mexico is now doing more to address the security and humanitarian crisis on the southern border than the Democrats in Congress. He is exactly right.

Thanks to the President's strong negotiation skills and threat of tariffs, the Mexican government is taking unprecedented action, and will now offer us the assistance that we so desperately need to address the situation at the southern border. And make no mistake, our Border Patrol agents are being overrun and require all of the help that they can get.

The number of undocumented immigrants crossing the border continues to rise, with 144,000 being apprehended in May, the largest one month total in 13 years. The statistics are so striking that even Nancy Pelosi recently abandoned her original position of calling the situation at the border and "manufactured crisis."

Despite these facts, Democrats in Congress are content to sit on their hands and do nothing on this issue. They are so consumed with thwarting President Trump's electoral chances in 2020, they believe giving him the resources he needs to secure our border is a nonstarter. They are putting politics over the security of the American people.

The lack of action from the Democrats regarding the border is not due to a lack of opportunities. The Fix the Immigration Loopholes Act, legislation that would stop the de facto amnesty currently occurring in border states, was introduced back in February and has not yet been taken up for a vote. And in the last month alone Democrats have 15 times blocked measures that would have allocated $4.5 billion to fund shelters for children in custody and increase personnel to halt human smuggling and trafficking at the border.

Even the New York Times has scolded Congress for not yet appropriating these resources. Congressional Democrats have been given every possible chance to fix this problem and have refused, so now the question is: what else can we do?

Recently, several of my Pennsylvania colleagues and I took matters into our own hands and petitioned Governor Wolf to deploy as many of the commonwealth's National Guard troops to the border as possible. Our request was made shortly after Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan testified to Congress that the National Guard has been "absolutely essential in helping maintain the DHS border security mission."

Law enforcement whom I met with during my April trip to Yuma, Arizona also advocated for bolstering the National Guard's presence at the border. It was their view that too much of Border Patrol's time is being spent on humanitarian work to address the surge of those seeking asylum rather than apprehending the dangerous drug smugglers and cartel members.

They believe that if more National Guard troops are provided to handle the humanitarian crisis, Border Patrol agents will be freed up to do the job they are intended to do. It is unfortunate that Governor Wolf, like many of his Democrats colleagues, feels no need to help ensure the safety and security of the nation. Instead, he denied our request and his office called the crisis at the border "hyperbole."

The Governor's response shows just how out of touch his party is on this issue. If those on the ground of the fight to secure the border are telling their representatives that National Guard resources will help them succeed at their mission, why would we not want to do everything possible to assist them? And while the crisis at the southern border is far from hyperbole, what is not an exaggeration is that American sovereignty is now in the hands of the Mexican government rather than our own.

While Democrats in Congress have proven to be useless on this issue, that doesn't mean we should give up. And I promise I won't give up either.

Powerful governors across the country have the means and the ability to unilaterally give Border Patrol agents the support that they need. If Mexico is willing to use its National Guard to combat the border crisis, states like Pennsylvania should follow suit.