Republican: Babysitting border agents need help

A Republican lawmaker says the National Guard needs to deploy to the U.S.-Mexico border because border agents are too busy babysitting the kids crossing into the U.S. illegally.

After Judicial Watch touted a government document that is aimed at recruiting border agents with “child care or juvenile teaching and/or counseling,” Arizona Rep. Dave Schweikert introduced a measure to deploy 10,000 National Guard troops to help stop the illegal crossings.

The Republican lawmaker tells The Hill that his constituents and border patrol sources say “some of our very best trackers and those who work on the border are now doing social services. There’s even a running joke right now … of how many are changing diapers because of all of the unaccompanied minors.”

Schweikert has eight co-sponsors for his measure, H.R. 4882, the “Southwest Border Protections Act,” that he says is just a “sliver” of part of the solution. He noted that the State Department must do more to curb the exodus of Central Americans north and that Mexico needs to enforce its own southern border.

On Friday, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) sent a letter to the White House calling for similar actions to deploy National Guard support to the four southern border states.

Several House committees have held contentious hearings this week with government officials on how to prevent more kids from joining the nearly 80,000 children that have crossed the border illegally since the start of 2014.