‘No military training value’: Guard chief dings Trump, Biden border missions

The National Guard's outgoing top officer on Tuesday criticized the long-running deployment of Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to aid Homeland Security personnel there, saying it has “no military training value.”

Gen. Daniel Hokanson, the retiring chief of the National Guard Bureau, told senators that the deployment at the border during the Biden and Trump administrations puts strain on part-time troops while doing little to build warfighting readiness.

"As I've expressed within the building as well, there is no military training value for what we do," Hokanson said during a Senate Defense Appropriations budget hearing for the Guard and Reserve components. "This is a law enforcement mission under the Department of Homeland Security."

The candid comments from the top Guard leader come as the complex cross-party fight over the border and immigration loom over the November election rematch between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.

Republicans have sought to use the crisis at the border and illegal border crossings to their advantage against Biden and Democrats, and in doing so have also blocked bipartisan legislation aimed at tackling the issue. And the White House has hit Republicans for playing politics on immigration by refusing to vote on a compromise measure.

Biden recently took executive action to clamp down on asylum seekers at the southern border. And on Tuesday, he announced a sweeping measure to shield thousands of undocumented immigrants residing in the U.S. from deportation.

Aside from Republicans, the president has also has taken heat from members of his own party over the situation at the border. Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), who faces a tough reelection bid in a state Trump twice won handily and chairs the defense spending panel, pressed Hokanson about the state of the mission and lamented the state of the border.

"Things have gotten worse under the administration's failed border policies," Tester said.

Tester questioned Hokanson on the impact the nearly seven-year-long border mission had on the Guard’s readiness for other operational missions

"I know that we're providing additional support along there. But for our Guardsmen there, they might as well be deployed to Kuwait or somewhere overseas because they're away from their families," Hokanson said. "They're there doing mission sets that are not directly applicable to their military skill set. And so it increases their personal operational tempo.

"That time, I think, would be better utilized building readiness to deter our adversaries," he said.

Administrations of both parties have deployed National Guard troops to provide support functions to supplement Department of Homeland Security personnel at the border as they cope with the flow of migrants crossing into the U.S.

Hokanson said 2,500 Guard personnel are at the southern border under federal authorities. The Guard was deployed by the Trump administration and continued under the Biden administration.

But lawmakers and even Pentagon officials have expressed concerns that the military is compromising readiness as a temporary patch when it's DHS's mission to secure the border.

While the military provides logistical and surveillance support, troops can’t directly engage in border security missions performed by Customs and Border Protection. Top brass have contended that the long-term solution is proper funding and manpower for the DHS border security mission. Still, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin last year extended the Pentagon's border mission to September 2024.

In May, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth told senators she’s concerned about the cost for the service augmenting border security, which had already totaled $270 million this year. Wormuth said she's open to emergency funding from Congress to cover the tab.