Kansas said it would send Guard members to border. They’re in a ‘holding pattern’

On the same day in October the Pentagon said it was sending more than 5,000 soldiers to the southern border as President Donald Trump focused on a caravan of migrants slowly walking toward the United States, the Kansas National Guard said it would send its members to help.

Nearly a month later, U.S. troops are starting to come home. But Kansas National Guardsmen haven’t gone yet.

“We are still in a holding pattern,” Guard spokeswoman Jane Welch said Tuesday.

The Kansas National Guard announcement on Oct. 29 came in the final days of a charged campaign for governor. Republican Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who made fighting illegal immigration a central part of his campaign, seized upon the announcement.

Kobach welcomed Gov. Jeff Colyer’s decision to send members of the Guard to the border “as a caravan of thousands of migrants moves north to illegally cross into the United States.”

The implication — that the Kansas National Guard would play a role in responding to the incoming caravan — has so far not come to pass.

Guard members are going through two levels of screening to ensure their deployment does not conflict with current or upcoming overseas deployments and they have the necessary skills, the Guard has said. Federal screenings will also ensure background checks and assignments meet established criteria.

“They are currently going through the second screening and we are not sure how long that will take,” Welch said.

The Guard has not said how many of its members may be deployed.

When the Guard announced it would send members to the southwest border, the only official quoted in a news release was Colyer, who said the assignment “will be an important one for those who are selected, and we send them on this mission with the full support of our state.”

Colyer said Tuesday in response to questions about the Guard deployment that federal officials decide the timing of the deployments.

“My understanding is that they are pulling everybody back and I don’t know how that is going to impact us,” he said.

Asked if he believes Guard members won’t be deployed to the border, Colyer replied: “I don’t know for sure.”

The October announcement from the Guard said that its members would be sent to Arizona to work with the Arizona National Guard, which is supporting U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The exact duties they would perform were not yet known, the Guard said.

The lack of deployments so far raises questions about whether Gov-elect Laura Kelly will allow Kansas Guard members to aid border operations once she becomes governor in January.

A spokeswoman for Kelly didn’t say Tuesday whether she would authorize Guard members to assist at the border.

“When Governor-elect Kelly becomes governor in January, she will take the responsibility to deploy Kansas National Guard troops very seriously,” Kelly communications director Ashley All said. “She will review all requests with thoughtful and thorough deliberation before making a decision.”

Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka, said members of the Guard should not be used as “political pawns” and that he’s not sure Guard members should be helping at the border.

“We probably ought to have a military presence down there with the Army, the federal troops, as opposed to commissioning state National Guard people to go down on the border,” Hensley said. “I think it’s more of a federal issue.”

For his part, Kobach says that law enforcement from across the country should be allowed to assist in border security.

Kobach, who remains Kansas secretary of state until January, has stayed mostly silent since losing the election. But in a column published by the conservative news site Breitbart this week, Kobach says a federal law should be invoked to allow police from other parts of the country to effectively act as border patrol agents.

“The time has come to put this tool to use,” Kobach writes. “As the caravan members become frustrated with delays in obtaining asylum hearings and realize that, in any event, their chances of gaining asylum are miniscule, many will attempt to cross the border illegally.”

On Monday, a federal judge said the Trump administration couldn’t enforce a plan to ban individuals who cross the border illegally from applying for asylum.

This story was originally published November 21, 2018 at 5:00 AM.