Officials in El Pasa say they need humanitarian assistance not the Texas National Guard

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On a cold morning along the banks of the Rio Grande, young men in military camouflage carry rifles and stand beside Humvees. They’re members of the Texas National Guard. A line of razor wire that they erected separates them from Mexico. A man and a woman from Peru approach and break down in tears when they see the guard members. They say they want to come into the country and seek asylum. “We didn’t come to commit crimes. We didn’t come to do anything. We just came to turn ourselves in,” they say in Spanish.

The 400 Texas National Guard troops that arrived in El Paso this week don’t have the authority to take these migrants – or others like them – into custody. That’s the U.S. Border Patrol’s job, but guard leaders say they have a mission. “In our rules in the use of force, we can serve as a deterrent in telling them to stop, in telling them to turn around and giving them an optic that they can’t pass,” says Major General Ronald Win Burkett, II of the National Guard. “We’ll be here as long as the governor thinks we’re adding value, we are serving as a deterrent,” says Burkett, but the city and county leaders are clear—the National Guard is not helping.

“We specifically told them we did not want them to send troops or militarize the border any further,” says David Stout, a County Commissioner and chairman of the Texas Border Coalition, which includes elected officials and business leaders. “We told them we need humanitarian assistance and not this political game they’re playing.”