Article at
Military.comLot's of controversy over the border issue...
Us Arizonans down on the border aren't real fond of the current gov...but this from her spokesperson is a positive sign:
"Why stop when you're just beginning to get control of the situation," said Jeanine L'Ecuyer, spokeswoman for Gov. Janet Napolitano of Arizona, site of the busiest smuggling corridor. "I don't think anyone in Arizona would tell you that the problem has improved so dramatically that the government should stop the operation."We need more of that mindest in the government...
June 23, 2008
Chicago Tribune
ON THE U.S.-MEXICO BORDER - Tech. Sgt. Wayne Combs of the California Air National Guard is riding aboard "Mad Max," a military truck whose homemade platform evokes the apocalyptic film.
Ten feet above the ground, he and other guardsmen are cutting and straightening posts to make the last line of U.S. fencing taller--to 16 feet --and harder for illegal immigrants to breach.
For most of two years, he has been working on this domestic front near San Diego whose double fence resembles a demilitarized zone. Into this void, however, flows the illegal traffic.
Combs has seen it firsthand, and there hasn't been much he could do: The immigrants walked right by him.
But, the 49-year-old Combs said, "I didn't see one who didn't get caught" later by the U.S. Border Patrol.
The Guard's two-year mission is to end by mid-July, but there's controversy about its withdrawal as there was about its deployment, which some criticized as excessive militarization of the nation's southern boundary.
The Soldiers and Airmen were here in a supporting role for the Border Patrol: They built roads and fences, flew helicopters for surveillance or transport and manned observation posts along the border, but they never made the arrests.
While the federal government--and the governors of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas -- have lauded the military's work, the Bush administration is rejecting the states' requests to prolong the mission.
Under President George W. Bush's Operation Jump Start, 6,000 guardsmen were sent to the border in 2006 when the 11,583-agent Border Patrol began to hire an additional 6,000 people, a target it's set to meet by year's end.
Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff has told the governors that the military was a temporary boost during crackdowns that have brought a 20 percent drop in immigrant arrests the past year--an indicator that overall illegal traffic is down.
"In our view, we have had a raging success. We think we made a difference," said National Guard Bureau spokesman Randal Noller.
Impact minor, some say Some experts disagree, saying "operational control" of the border, a federal goal, has yet to be attained.
The Guard "probably did a fair amount of infrastructure work and construction, but I'm not sure they made very much difference to actual border security in any way that you want to categorize it," said Josiah Heyman, a border expert and University of Texas at El Paso professor.
Heyman said several scenarios could explain the drop in arrests: Smugglers are better at avoiding detection. Immigrants avoid back-and-forth trips. Jobs, especially in construction, are fewer.
Wayne Cornelius, director of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at the University of California-San Diego, said his research indicates a fortified border doesn't dent immigrants' 98 percent success rate but makes them hire smugglers.
In fact, 821 would-be immigrants said their biggest fear --cited by 43 percent--is the desert, which kills more than 500 crossers a year. The Guard was feared by only 5.3 percent, ranking between the border fence (5.8 percent) and the Minutemen or vigilantes (2.4 percent), according to Cornelius' study, which was released this month by the pro-Immigration Immigration Policy Center.
Guard needed, others say The governors, however, praised the Guard for toughening the borderlands, which they said could be undone by the drawdown.
"Why stop when you're just beginning to get control of the situation," said Jeanine L'Ecuyer, spokeswoman for Gov. Janet Napolitano of Arizona, site of the busiest smuggling corridor. "I don't think anyone in Arizona would tell you that the problem has improved so dramatically that the government should stop the operation."
Agreeing is Allison Castle, spokeswoman for Texas Gov. Rick Perry. "There's still a tremendous amount of illegal activity that's taking place," she said. Since March 2006, about 500 immigrants from "known terrorist countries" such as Iran, Yemen, Iraq and Afghanistan were caught entering Texas illegally from Mexico, Castle said.
U.S. Border Patrol assistant chief Lloyd Easterling responds that the Guard "was never meant to be a 1-for-1 replacement" for the 6,000 Border Patrol agents being hired.
Many guardsmen said they would like to see their work extended.
"We love it," said Combs. "It's good for government. It's good for all."
The Guard learned a basic lesson of the border: Crackdowns in one sector just send smugglers elsewhere. San Diego was the only one of the border's nine sectors that saw an increase in apprehensions last year -- a sign of more crossings.
"It's the thought it might be easier to get across here and blend into the metropolitan area," said Lt. Col. Peter Shaner, executive officer for the California National Guard's border task force. "Out in the desert, it's easier to be spotted."
