The Guard’s Long, Hard Slog
Aug 12th, 2006 | By Michel Marizco | Category: General News, Immigration, Organized Crime, Politics
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It started as a seemingly innocuous idea from the White House: Place 6,000 National Guard troops on the border and hold the line against illegal immigration until enough U.S. Border Patrol agents are trained to properly fill in the gaps between the resources on the border.
But Operation Jump Start is facing allegations that Border Patrol resources are being lost to provide security for the National Guard troops. Meanwhile, the agency is pulling out numbers that make me blink. For some reason, it takes 11 National Guard soldiers to replace one Border Patrol agent. Very confusing.
After this week, the administration should have taken a lesson that historical troop deployments have demonstrated time and time again - don't forget Murphy.
Now, Murphy's made his presence felt.
The Guard suffered a casualty to the Arizona heat Friday, the first in barely a month's time. Last week, Army officials revealed that it will take more than $21 billion to equip an already-stressed National Guard for combat readiness.
And now, the kind face of cooperation between the Border Patrol and the National Guard is losing its luster. It's unfortunate for both organizations; they've both gone to long lengths to demonstrate their eagerness to work together.Last week, Bush visited Mission, Texas, to give a mission-accomplished-type speech, saying "we got it done," 6,000 troops have been deployed.
At the same meeting, Border Patrol chief David Aguilar told the Army News Service: "It was an opportunity for the president to see firsthand the great partnership and collaboration between the Border Patrol and the National Guard."
Well, what else are they going to say?The national Border Patrol union paints an entirely different picture.
"The NBPC has learned that while the Border Patrol claims the National Guard is releasing agents from administrative duties to work in the field, ten percent of manpower in some locations is being used to play nanny for the National Guard," the union said on its Web site, happily labelling the link, "fiasco."
Apparently, the National Council, headed by T.J. Bonner, drew the ten percent figure from Border Patrol stations in Cochise County where Naco and Douglas agents have been talking to the local union arm, Local 2544.
Now, maybe the national union is concerned for their agents' job security (they've been saying what a great job the agents are doing and suddenly, along comes the National Guard to steal the spotlight.)
But maybe they're drawing accurate numbers.
Among its accusations, the national union claims that Homeland Security is approving overtime pay for agents to provide security for National Guard troops on the border. Earlier this summer, the same union reported that Homeland placed an overtime cap on its canine officers.Those overtime caps play hell on agency schedules. Search and rescue teams - BORSTAR - and K9 teams face overtime caps every couple of years. I've heard from agents that they sometimes end up donating hours to finish searches, not a good economic plan for an agency with more than a $1.5 billion a year budget.
As for the numbers I'm growing very confused. Chief Aguilar said in a speech with National Guard Bureau General Steven Blum that the 6,000 National Guard troops will free up 581 agents. Does this mean it takes 11 National Guard soldiers to replace one agent?
Math has never been my strongpoint (English major) but that doesn't seem to be a very effective use of 6,000 soldiers.
Is there an explanation for this that I missed?
