Guard will remain on border, at least for now

In his State of the State address Wednesday, Gov. Greg Abbott identified border security as one of five emergency items needing expedited consideration by the Legislature.

It’s hard to disagree with making border security a priority — it’s always top of mind in a state that abuts the nation’s closest southern neighbor for more than 1,200 miles. So we won’t rush to judgment regarding the emergency designation.

However, we will raise some questions about the governor’s proposed solution.

Abbott outlined a plan to recruit, train and deploy 500 additional Department of Public Safety troopers to the border.

That would essentially continue the DPS border surge policy that his predecessor began last summer in response to an influx of mostly Central American women and children into the Rio Grande Valley.

The reason for the surge has largely subsided, so the need for the continued heightened border presence is debatable.

Even if it is still necessary, implementing Abbott’s border policy will not happen overnight. Hiring, preparing and deploying 500 new DPS officers will take many months, if not years.

As a short-term fix, Abbott says he has identified funds to keep the National Guard troops — also sent to the border last summer — in place until the Legislature acts. But he also says that Guard troops would remain until DPS has the “permanent resources needed” to secure the border. Again, that could take a long time.

While we applaud the plan to recall the National Guard, the open-ended timeline is not encouraging.

Texas House Speaker Joe Straus agrees. He told reporters this week that while he’s working with the governor on developing a plan, the National Guard was “not created for a long-term deployment of this type.”

He’s right.

And as we’ve argued before, the roles of both DPS officers and National Guard troops have been subject to mission creep.

It’s clear we need solutions to Texas’ border problems, but it’s equally clear that those solutions can’t come exclusively from Abbott, DPS and the National Guard.

This story was originally published February 19, 2015 at 5:52 PM with the headline "Guard will remain on border, at least for now."