Media
National Guard at the Border: There is A Better Way
September 15, 2011
Washington, D.C. - The Obama Administration announced last week that it will again extend the mission of 1,200 National Guard troops that have been deployed on the southwest border since the summer of 2010. Following is a statement by Ali Noorani, Executive Director of the National Immigration Forum.
“The number of illegal crossings at the border has now dropped to the low levels of the Nixon Administration. This decision to extend the mission of the National Guard for an additional three months is costly—$25 million—and unnecessary.
There has already been a historic build-up of the Border Patrol. Its budget now stands at more than $3 billion a year, and there are more than 21,000 agents stationed on the southwest border.
At a time when our country is looking to cut the deficit, our leaders need to do a basic cost-benefit analysis of our approach to immigration before throwing more money at the border.
Such a cost-benefit analysis would show that we do not need the National Guard at the border. We do need a functioning immigration system. We need to prioritize enforcement needs and we need to reform our outdated admission system to facilitate legal immigration and find a realistic way for undocumented immigrants now living and working in our country to gain legal status.
Once we’ve reformed our laws, created sufficient legal opportunities to enter the country, and put undocumented immigrants on the path to citizenship, we can target our enforcement resources much more effectively and with much less cost.”
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The Forum has compiled a packet of its materials on border enforcement. You can obtain that packet here.
Founded in 1982, the National Immigration Forum advocates for the value of immigrants and immigration to our nation. In service to this mission, the Forum promotes responsible immigration policies that honor our Founding Fathers’ ideals of America as a land of opportunity and also address today’s economic and national security needs.
