Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) says he “fully” supports President Trump’s decision to deploy National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to aid Border Patrol agents in stemming an overwhelming flow of illegal aliens to the country.

In a statement to local media, Brooks said the military at the border is necessary to protect American citizens and the country’s “national sovereignty.”

Brooks said:

I fully support President Trump’s use of our military to secure the border against invasion by foreign nationals. Recent, highly-publicized caravans of thousands of foreigners heading for America’s border emphasize that it is past time for Congress to reform laws that entice and reward foreign nationals who illegally invade America. For too long, illegal aliens have exploited weak laws and then sought and sometimes gained de facto permanent legal status at great cost and damage to American taxpayers. [Emphasis added] Until Congress gives President Trump funding for the physical border wall, his decision to send troops to the border, consistent with his Constitutional power as commander in chief, not only sends a strong message to the world that our borders will be secure, but more importantly preserves America’s national sovereignty. [Emphasis added]

The “caravans” mentioned by Brooks refer to the 1,500 Central Americans who are set to seek asylum in the U.S., traveling through Guatemala and Mexico up to the southern border. Current U.S. immigration and asylum laws prevent immigration officials from turning the asylum-seekers back to Mexico to seek asylum through Mexico’s legal process.

Experts say the caravan and a rising number of border-crossings in the U.S. is the “inevitable” result of Republicans, Democrats, and the Trump administration’s pushing for an amnesty for illegal aliens over the last six months.

As Breitbart News reported, Princeton Policy Adviser President Steven Kopits said illegal immigration in 2018 is likely to increase by 70 percent — or about 590,000 border-crossings for 2018.

Wage Growth for American Workers Threatened by Lack of Wall, Expected Rise in Illegal Immigrationhttps://t.co/4c0aYxs73j — John Binder 👽 (@JxhnBinder) March 16, 2018

Such an increase, Kopits said, would put 2018 as the “second highest year since 2010” for illegal immigration on the southern border.

The report comes as Trump’s proposed border wall has yet to be paid for and constructed, leaving the southern border just as open as it was under former President Obama.

The spike in illegal immigration for this year would translate into suppressing wage gains for American workers, who over the last couple of months have enjoyed historic wage growth due to increased immigration enforcement and less illegal immigration in 2017 – largely due to Trump’s rhetoric.

In Kopits’ most recent report on illegal immigration, he notes that California’s farm wages for Americans have increased because of slower illegal immigration throughout 2017 and increased enforcement, with the caveat, “However, the more enforcement succeeds, the higher wages will go, and the greater the incentive to evade the ban. In California, for example, tougher border enforcement has raised farm wages to $16 / hour, up perhaps $5 / hour over earlier times.”

Those wages gains, however, risk being depleted this year.