Border mission should be a Homeland Security job, says head of Northern Command
By Meghann Myers
Mar 24, 04:31 PM
Soldiers and Marines attached to Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force 7 join Customs and Border Protection at San Ysidro Point of Entry, Calif., Nov. 25, 2018. (Staff Sgt. Jesse Untalan/Army)
Four years into the National Guard’s deployment to the U.S.-Mexico border, the number of troops assigned to the mission has slowly come down, but there have been no indications from civilian or military leadership that there is an end in sight.
Sending those troops home will depend largely on the Homeland Security Department’s ability to surveil the border and prevent illegal crossings on its own. And troops should not be a go-to option for doing that, the head of U.S. Northern Command told lawmakers Thursday.
“I think, long term, this is not an enduring mission of the Department of Defense,” Air Force Gen. Glenn VanHerck said during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. “We need to fully fund and resource DHS to do their mission, and the DoD should be used in extremis times for the support on the border mission.”
https://www.armytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2022/03/24/border-mission-should-be-a-homeland-security-job-says-head-of-northern-command/
