opinion

Roberts: Trump calling out the National Guard in response to ... Fox News?

President Donald Trump plans to send the National Guard to the U.S.-Mexico border. We are saved. I guess.

“To Secure the Border and Make America Safe, We Need to Deploy the National Guard,” the Department of Homeland Security announced Wednesday. “Deploying the National Guard will serve as an immediate deterrent while dramatically enhancing operational control of the U.S. border."

Which leads me to wonder: What the heck has happened between this time last week and now to warrant calling out the National Guard?

Where's the fire?

What manner of natural or man-made disaster has suddenly befallen us?

Illegal immigration is at its lowest level in decades. Apprehensions at the border were at a 47-year-low last year, though they have begun to increase a bit this year. (36,695 arrests in February, up from 23,555 the previous February.)

Still, no dire threat has emerged.

There was, however, a Fox News story broadcast Sunday about a rag-tag caravan of Central Americans headed this way. On foot. And still 1,000 miles from the border.

Shortly thereafter, Trump took to Twitter.

Either Trump is reacting to Hondurans seeking refuge, or he’s reacting to the fact that after 15 months in office, he’s been stonewalled on his plan to build his $25 billion border wall.

READ MORE:

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And so red meat must be thrown to the base, in the form of red-blooded troops.

“Until we can have a wall and proper security, we’re going to be guarding our border with the military,” Trump said Tuesday “That's a big step, we really haven’t done that before, or certainly not very much before.”

Actually, we have.

How we deployed the Guard before

President George Bush sent 6,000 National Guard troops to the border in 2006-08 – about 2,400 of them in Arizona. The $1.2 billion Operation Jump Start came as Mexico was declaring war on drug cartels, resulting in violence that threatened to spill over the border.

President Barack Obama sent 1,200 troops to the border in 2010 – about 500 in Arizona. The $135 million Operation Phalanx was a response to specific fears of violence after a series of high-profile murders and also to help out the short-staffed Customs and Border.

Now comes Trump with a response to … Fox News?

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com.

READ MORE:

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