Construction workers build a U.S.-Mexico border wall in New Mexico, U.S., in August 2019.
The U.S. military will be involved in securing the southwest portion of the U.S.-Mexico border for at least three more years, Department of Homeland Security officials told Congress in a new report Tuesday (Feb. 23). The report says both DHS and the military are failing in their mission and lists all the costs of relying on the military to maintain the border.
DHS officials told the Congressional-affiliated Government Accountability Office (GAO) that the tasks could take at least three to five more years to complete, according to The Washington Times. Auditors said, “DHS officials plan to request assistance from the Department of Defense for at least the next 3-5 years, according to DHS officials who serve on the interagency planning team.”
That was the department’s position in October, GAO said. The military has performed a variety of border missions, large and small, during the Trump (R-Texas) administration. It’s unclear whether the Biden administration will change the status quo.
The National Guard has been sent to the border in each of the past three presidencies. Currently, the U.S. Department of Defense is required to maintain aid through at least September of this year, the end of fiscal year 2021.
The GAO audit noted that DOD did not submit a report to Congress detailing the costs of providing help at the border and said the department used the wrong yardstick to measure those costs. the GAO said the two departments should develop a common plan given the ongoing need for defense assistance.
In maintaining border security, the military is typically responsible for tasks such as clearing brush that migrants use to hide, maintaining Border Patrol convoys, finding illegal border crossers, conducting air missions to find border crossers and sending agents to remote areas to intercept groups of illegal immigrants, the report said.
Pentagon officials have rejected most of GAO’s proposed changes. They defended their own approach to measuring costs and said formalizing a relationship with the Department of Homeland Security on border operations is overstepping the line.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Robert G. Salesses wrote, “DOD is providing support to assist DHS in filling the temporary gaps needed to achieve border security.” “An agreed outcome beyond FY 2021 would represent a longer-term and enduring commitment of DOD resources and could create the impression that DOD has a border security mission.”
While the Pentagon is acting as a backstop, Congress must provide adequate funding for DHS so that it does not need to rely on DOD to secure the border, Salesses said.
GAO said the Defense Department has ignored the reality of supporting border security for nearly two decades, including spending nearly $1 billion over the past three years.
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