President Barack Obama will likely have to send National Guard troops to the southern U.S. border to assist Border Patrol agents with the influx of illegal immigrants crossing into the country, said Rep. Adam Kinzinger.
"At the end of the day, the president's probably, if he really wants to solve the border crisis, at least in the short term, is probably going to have to deploy National Guard soldiers to alleviate what the Border Patrol's having to do," the Illinois Republican told "Fox & Friends" on Wednesday.
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Kinzinger said the Obama administration needs to ensure that the Department of Defense has "all of the resources it needs" to handle the border crisis, since cuts have been made to the military's budget. He said the military is already "carrying a share of this burden" because of the thousands of illegal immigrants who are being housed at bases.
The military, through the United States Southern Command, is also playing an active role in combating "drug trafficking and narcoterrorism" in Central and South America, seen to be at the heart of the border surge, Kinzinger said, adding it should be properly funded, as well.
"SOUTHCOM needs to be well resourced to be able to combat the front end of why we're seeing a lot of these kids come up here to the border," he said.
Drug cartels are sensing an opportunity in the crisis, Kinzinger said, because they have "figured out that, not only can they make money on bringing children up here, but they can also use that distraction, and the Border Patrol being distracted by the number of children, to put more drugs over the border."
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