National Guard Can't Use Surveillance at US-Mexico Border

The hundreds of National Guardsmen sent to the southern border to bolster security are not allowed to look into Mexico using any kind of surveillance equipment, The New York Times reports.

That would be considered "intelligence collection," a no-no that's part of the legal ground rules governing what troops can and cannot do in support of The Border Patrol, the Times reports.

Guardsmen can look into Mexico as far their own eyes can see, but using surveillance equipment to spot illegal immigrants trying to penetrate the border is part of the other restrictions put on troops, including law-enforcement duties, making arrests or interacting with migrants, the Times reports.

"They have their hands tied," Texas Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez told the Times. "This is not what the National Guard was designed for."

President Donald Trump's ordered deployment of the troops to the border falls under the governance of Title 32 of the U.S. code for homeland defense.

So what are the troops doing at the border? Monitoring on the U.S. side, administrative work, logistical and maintenance tasks that need to be done as part of their mission as a "force multiplier," the Times reports.

"To me, the whole thing smacks more and more of the absurdity of this call-up," Terri Burke, executive director of the Texas branch of the American Civil Liberties Union told the Times. "I’m not endorsing surveillance in Mexico. I don’t think our government should be doing that at all. But I have yet to figure out why we need the Guard on the border.”

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