Immigration Overload
Timesunion.com
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson told Congress on Tuesday he would consider every conceivable, lawful option to deal with a continuing flood of immigrants crossing the U.S. border illegally in South Texas.
Johnson told the House Homeland Security Committee that he won't rule out using National Guard troops, as several lawmakers have suggested, but he warned that there are limitations to using troops to help manage what has become a humanitarian crisis at the border.
"I've heard the calls from some that we put the Guard on the border. I'd want to understand better what the options are for the use of the Guard," Johnson told lawmakers during more than two hours of questioning. "But there are definitely some limitations on the use of the Guard in this respect, I think, and we have to be mindful of those."
The White House indicated later in the day it wasn't interested in the proposal to deploy troops.
"There has already been a historic commitment of resources to the border," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.
Since the start of the budget year last October, Border Patrol agents have apprehended more than 52,000 immigrant children crossing the border alone. Most of the young immigrants are from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala and have been caught in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas.