Cong. Cuellar: On National Guard Troops to Border Announcement

250 National Guard to Deploy to Texas Border Beginning August 1^st Texas Insider Report: Washington DC In response to todays joint announcement by the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security to deploy 1200 National Guard troops to the U.S. southern border beginning August 1 2010 Congressman Henry Cuellar (TX-28) talked about the decision.   Congressman Cuellar is Chairman of the Subcommittee on Border Maritime & Global Counterterrorism. In order to further combat illegal activity along our southern border the National Guard will deploy in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security 1200 troops to the U.S. Southern Border beginning August 1. The focus of this deployment is to provide additional support and surveillance to our border security efforts already underway. In doing so the majority of these guardsmen will assist with border surveillance and serve as entry identification teams between our land ports of entry to support Border Patrol in detecting the movement of illegal aliens and contraband traffickers" Cuellar said.

• Arizona:         524 National Guard to be deployed
• California:    224 National Guard to be deployed
• New Mexico:  72 National Guard to be deployed (will also provide support to the El Paso region)
• Texas:              250 National Guard to be deployed

Additional guardsmen will serve as criminal intelligence analysts to support DHS intelligence forces. This combination of additional support will ensure we take all necessary steps to combat the spectrum of threats we face along the U.S. Mexico border" said Cuellar. Additionally 130 National Guard will serve as command and control to the overall mission.  This temporary deployment will provide immediate support to our federal law enforcement until Customs and Border Protection and ICE can recruit and train additional officers agents and analysts. I believe this will strengthen our multi-layered approach to combat narcotics weapons and human smuggling along our border. As drug-related violence persists in neighboring Mexico this is one more step were taking to ensure the safety of our border states who face a unique exposure to drug-related violence and illegal activity" Cuellar said. Now we look to our Senate colleagues to immediately augment these efforts by passing the $701 million in emergency funding for the southern border that the House passed this July. These are critical funds to support our federal state and local law enforcement that carry out our border security mission everyday" said Cuellar. Congressman Henry Cuellar is a member of the U.S. House Homeland Security Agriculture and Government Oversight & Reform Committees in the 111^th Congress. Cuellar is also a Senior Whip & member of the Blue Dog Coalition.