Texas Gov. Rick Perry's decision to send National Guard troops to the troubled U.S.-Mexico border lacks legal bite but could still help, says Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies.
"They can't actually arrest anybody. They can detain illegal immigrants temporarily if they find them, but only the Border Patrol can arrest people,'' Krikorian said Wednesday on "The Steve Malzberg Show'' on
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But Krikorian, also a columnist for National Review, added that the Guard can be of some assistance.
"They can do a lot of good if they work with the Border Patrol. They can do surveillance, they can do transportation of illegal immigrants, they can do a lot of the back-office work the Border Patrol agents are now doing,'' he said.
"Paperwork, all of that stuff, is actually pulling huge numbers of agents off the line. They're making sandwiches and filling out paperwork instead of trying to keep illegal immigrants and smugglers out.''
Earlier this week, it was revealed that Perry plans to deploy as many as 1,000 National Guard troops to the border in response to the flood of children and families entering the U.S. illegally. Perry has been critical of the White House's response to the problem.
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