From Homeland Security NewsWire:
Border securityObama extends National Guard deployment along border
Published 22 June 2011
President Obama has ordered the National Guard currently deployed along the U.S.-Mexico border to remain there for at least an additional three months to assist with border security; the Pentagon has agreed to spend $35 million to extend the deployment of the 1,200 National Guardsmen sent last year to California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas through the end of September
Guardsman surveys the landscape // Source: cipamericas.org
President Obama has ordered the National Guard currently deployed along the U.S.-Mexico border to remain there for at least an additional three months to assist with border security.
The Pentagon has agreed to spend $35 million to extend the deployment of the 1,200 National Guardsmen sent last year to California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas through the end of September. Their tour of duty was originally set to end 30 June.
Matthew Chandler, a spokesman for DHS, said the soldiers are a “critical bridge” for the administration’s long term border security plan as it brings additional funding and personnel to the area.
The National Guard troops are strictly on surveillance duty, although they are armed. The bulk of their deployment consists of monitoring the border in small mobile turrets for any suspicious activity. If the troops detect anything, border patrol agents are called in to investigate.
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the troops have helped arrest 17,000 illegal immigrants, nearly 6 percent of all arrests made. The National Guard has also assisted in the seizure of marijuana, interdicting 51,000 pounds of it since July – 2.6 percent of the nearly two million pounds seized in total.
Andrew Selee, director of the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, said that the extension of the National Guard’s deployment makes sense politically, but does little to improve security.
“Short-term deployments do little to enhance long-term security concerns,” he said.
Selee argues that the money could be better spent on other border security measures that have proven more effective in addressing the threat from Mexican drug cartels along the border.
Meanwhile local residents like Wendy Glenn, a cattle rancher in Arizona whose property sits on the border, are glad to hear that their deployment has been extended.
“They sit in a tower with radar and computers, night and day scopes, and that discourages people from trying to cross into our property,” she said.
Martha Skinner, a resident of Columbus, New Mexico, which sits less than four miles north of the border, echoed Glenn’s thoughts adding, “I think having soldiers on the border makes the drug folks in Mexico a little more aware tha.t we’re protecting our borders.”
Border securityObama extends National Guard deployment along border
Published 22 June 2011
President Obama has ordered the National Guard currently deployed along the U.S.-Mexico border to remain there for at least an additional three months to assist with border security; the Pentagon has agreed to spend $35 million to extend the deployment of the 1,200 National Guardsmen sent last year to California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas through the end of September
Guardsman surveys the landscape // Source: cipamericas.org
President Obama has ordered the National Guard currently deployed along the U.S.-Mexico border to remain there for at least an additional three months to assist with border security.
The Pentagon has agreed to spend $35 million to extend the deployment of the 1,200 National Guardsmen sent last year to California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas through the end of September. Their tour of duty was originally set to end 30 June.
Matthew Chandler, a spokesman for DHS, said the soldiers are a “critical bridge” for the administration’s long term border security plan as it brings additional funding and personnel to the area.
The National Guard troops are strictly on surveillance duty, although they are armed. The bulk of their deployment consists of monitoring the border in small mobile turrets for any suspicious activity. If the troops detect anything, border patrol agents are called in to investigate.
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the troops have helped arrest 17,000 illegal immigrants, nearly 6 percent of all arrests made. The National Guard has also assisted in the seizure of marijuana, interdicting 51,000 pounds of it since July – 2.6 percent of the nearly two million pounds seized in total.
Andrew Selee, director of the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, said that the extension of the National Guard’s deployment makes sense politically, but does little to improve security.
“Short-term deployments do little to enhance long-term security concerns,” he said.
Selee argues that the money could be better spent on other border security measures that have proven more effective in addressing the threat from Mexican drug cartels along the border.
Meanwhile local residents like Wendy Glenn, a cattle rancher in Arizona whose property sits on the border, are glad to hear that their deployment has been extended.
“They sit in a tower with radar and computers, night and day scopes, and that discourages people from trying to cross into our property,” she said.
Martha Skinner, a resident of Columbus, New Mexico, which sits less than four miles north of the border, echoed Glenn’s thoughts adding, “I think having soldiers on the border makes the drug folks in Mexico a little more aware tha.t we’re protecting our borders.”
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