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Jun 2nd, 2006 | By Michel Marizco | Category: General News, Immigration, Politics
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Texas governor Rick Perry is even taking the circus one step further by using the same technology that brings us live Internet porn – web cams.
Apparently there’s only going to be a few hundred National Guard troops stationed along the Arizona border. The 6,000 number trumpeted from the people in charge in Phoenix and D.C. is going to be deployed in small numbers over the next two years. What happened to the “emergency” along the “broken borders?”
The strategy was made a little bit clearer when it was determined the 6,000 troops will be deployed over the next two years.
I suppose this nixes concerns of not having enough National Guard troops to fight wildfires, respond to earthquakes, quell riots or distribute supplies during national emergencies.
But, according to this story, 300 Arizona troops will be deployed by June 15 to be “joined later by soldiers from other states.”
Why in the hell is nobody saying what the actual number of troops is going to be at any one time?
Ask, and officials will probably tell you they can’t answer that because they don’t want migrant smugglers to know.
The hard reality is there isn’t going to be very many National Guard troops at all.
Let’s say for a moment that the 300 initial Arizona soldiers will be joined by another 300 out-of-state soldiers. That’s 600 people and that’s not bad – until you count how many are already out here.
- 2,400 Tucson Sector agents
- 650 Yuma Sector agents
- 700 Customs and Border Protection agents and inspectors at Arizona ports of entry
The 600 troops means an increase of about 17 percent manpower on the Arizona-Sonora border. Breaking the numbers down, let’s say Tucson sector receives 400 of the 600 soldiers.
If 2,400 Tucson sector agents stop 250,000 attempts to cross the border and 440,000 pounds of dope, what is an extra 400 troops going to contribute? An extra 30,000 attempts to cross the border?
Many of these apprehensions are simply migrants trying to cross the border illegally over and over again. So apprehension numbers will increase but as taxpayers, we’re still not going to know what this latest adventure is costing us.
I predict we’ll soon start seeing press releases bearing the state seal boasting about captured dope loads and groups of 25 people. Don’t believe the hype when it starts. The numbers are misleading.
A look-good measure baby, one that makes Pres. Bush and Gov. Napolitano appear to do something useful about securing our border but not one that is going to have a tangible effect.
Texas, meanwhile, is going online to beef up border security.
Texans will be able to link up to the video surveillance cameras along the border and call in illegal entries to a Border Patrol number.
Who dreams up of this shit?
I realize these are politicians facing re-election years but who buys these ideas?
How long before the situation degenerates into an online game of Duck Hunt?
The only thing missing is an online scoreboard, maybe a payoff to the winner. But I’m sure our politicos are already working on that.
Good report.
Reuters is coming to S AZ next week to do a big TV story on the border situation for international and nationwide news.
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