524 National Guard troops to be deployed at the Arizona border
by Hugh Holub on Jul. 20, 2010, under border issues, politics, SB 1070
News is that 524 National Guard troops will be stationed in the Arizona – Mexico border for up to four months.
The first problem with this “solution” is it is no real solution at all. Under the Posse Comitatus law the Guard cannot enforce federal immigration law. They are merely there to watch and report illegal activity to the Border Patrol.
Stationing the Guard as close to the border as possible means that wherever they are located, illegal entry and drug smuggling will probably decline, and move to areas where the Guard is not stationed.
The second problem is that since all the Guard can do is watch and report, there must be a follow up from the Border Patrol to do anything about what the Guard spots out there.
This highlights the core problem of border security in that the Border Patrol is scattered all over southern Arizona, and their response time to any specific location where illegal entrants are spotted is problematic. If it takes a half an hour or an hour for the Border Patrol to show up where illegal entrants are spotted, the illegal entrants are gone.
One of the best kept secrets is where the Border Patrol deploys its agents on any given day. I actually asked the Tucson Sector chief if he could show Congresswoman Giffords’ staff where his agents were at a given point in time, to demonstrate the problem. The BP could not disclose this due to national security issues. They are hiding their failed strategy and don’t want anyone outside their agency questioning what they are doing.
Somebody in Congress needs to really crack down on the Border Patrol and hold a hearing on their tactics and strategies, and force them to show where they deploy their agents and justify scattering them all over the countryside, driving around neighborhoods instead of patrolliung the border itself.
Congress also ought to order the Border Patrol to concentrate their agents closer to the border so illegal entrants do not get very far into the United States.
There are 2,900 Border Patrol agents in the 262 mile Tucson Sector already. We see lots of them 20 and 30 miles from the border, sitting at the intersection of Chavez Siding Interchange on I-19, driving around Tubac, and all around Green Valley. Just adding more Border Patrol agents to the Tucson Sector doesn’t really do very much to solve the problem if they are not concentrated at the border.
If the Border Patrol was concentrated within 10 miles of the 262 mile segment of the Tucson Sector, that would be 2,620 square miles to patrol. Spreading the agents around 60 miles from the border leaves them with 15,720 square miles of territory to try and find illegal entrants.
It is a lot harder concentrating the Border Patrol close to the border bnecause there are no nice roads for them to drive their SUV’s on. They’d have to patrol on horses. They’d have to live out on Foreward Observation Bases for days at a time. Not as fun as sitting in a truck watching traffic go by.
Think of this like being a fishing net. The closer the weave, the more fish can be caught.
Arizona leaders: Deployment of troops is good step but not enough
Arizona Republic Jul.20, 2010Too little, too late.
That was the consensus response of Arizona’s political leaders Monday to an announcement by the Department of Homeland Security that National Guard troops will begin arriving on the Arizona border Aug. 1, along with more federal agents and technology.
“While the announcement of more resources is welcomed, it does not appear to be enough,” said Gov. Jan Brewer. “We need the implementation of a federal plan to achieve victory over these brutal cartels and the porous nature of our open border.”
In a joint statement, U.S. Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl, both Republicans, said dispatching soldiers and additional agents is “a step in the right direction. However, a lot more needs to be done.”
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s disclosure Monday came just 10 days before Arizona’s implementation of a controversial immigration enforcement law, which makes it a state crime to be in the country illegally. It states that an officer engaged in a lawful stop, detention or arrest shall, when practicable, ask about a person’s legal status when reasonable suspicion exists that the person is in the U.S. illegally.The law, known as Senate Bill 1070, has spawned a nationwide debate and a federal lawsuit challenging its constitutionality.
Of 1,200 National Guard soldiers being dispatched to the Southwest border next month, Napolitano said, 524 will be placed in Arizona. In addition, she announced the reassignment of hundreds of Border Patrol agents and customs officers to the Arizona border, which has become the focal point of debate about illegal immigration and cartel-related violence.
Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, D-Ariz., said increased enforcement is “a step in the right direction, and one that would not be happening without our state’s demands for action. . . . This is the kind of action we want from the administration – not suing the state.”
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, a southern Arizona Democrat who also has criticized the Obama administration, complained that the response was slow in coming and expressed concern that reinforcements will not be assigned to the smuggling no man’s land in southeastern Arizona.
“It is crucial for these additional agents to be stationed on the border, not 20 or 30 miles back from it,” Giffords said. “We must not cede any American territory to drug cartels or human smugglers.”
Illegal-immigrant arrests have fallen dramatically during the past seven years while enforcement efforts doubled. In a commentary that appeared in Monday’s Arizona Republic, Napolitano repeated her assertion that border security has improved. She also noted the Obama administration recently asked Congress for an additional $600 million in security funding, a request that awaits Senate approval.
Brewer said she signed SB1070 partly “to get the federal government to do its job.” Responding to Napolitano’s remarks, she added: “Despite the mantra by the Obama administration that the border is ‘as secure as ever,’ in Arizona both Republicans and Democrats recognize they have failed.”
July 20th, 2010 on 1:17 pm
2900 border agents divided by 262 miles equals about 11 agents/mile along the border, more or less. A mile is 5280 feet, so that would compute to 5280 divided by 11 equals 480 feet. Still a lot of land to cover on horseback, and no wonder border crossers get through anyway. Don’t know if an additional 524 National Guard troops will help.
July 20th, 2010 on 1:49 pm
sorry but you dont work for the border patrol and see how daily operations are carried out. Lets just say your theory wouldn’t work, and is infeasible. Trust me on that one. For example, not many farmers near the border want us on their land. Naco for example has John Ladd. He has locked them out of his property because he doesn’t want his land ruined when they respond to illegals. Hence they either catch them right at the border, chase them north, or wait till they get to the highway. Thats just one example that you are clueless about.
July 20th, 2010 on 5:05 pm
I happen to know a lot of ranchers along the border that are happy to have the BP on their places. The FOB at Sycamore Canyon is working great. Need more of those. I personally know several area ranchers who would love to have an FOB on their ranches.
I can well understand some of the hostility the BP encounters because you all act like an occupying army….I personally saw to it one of your guys went to jail for his conduct in Nogales.
The argument that only the Border Patrol knows what to do is so bogus it is amazing anyone still believes the agency.
The BP suffers from a “wer’re the feds and no one can tell us what to do” mentality.
Sorry but a lot of us locals actually do have a lot of experience with border problems. And we’re flat tired of the BS coming from the agency about what a great job you all are doing.
Millions of illegal entrants having crossed the border proves without question the BP has failed.
One of these days Congress is going to get tired of thowing hundreds of millions at the BP so you all can ride around in your trucks pretending you are doing something about illegal entry by sitting at places like (today) Elephant Head Road and I-19 watching the traffic.
July 20th, 2010 on 5:38 pm
your clearly an idiot. It is impossible to stop illegals from crossing the line. If you were to even put an agent every 20 feet, they will cross a group of 30 in one area, thus making other agents leave their posts to help out. Then they will cross the group where there is the empty spots etc etc. The guys up north are to catch what got by the line units, and to shoot traffic. Since it is impossible to stop everything that crosses the line, you need people north. And because agents are sitting off the road doesnt mean their doing nothing. Its called shooting traffic and closely looking at vehicles as they pass in order to determine if they are involved with illegal activity. If you wanna bitch and moan about agents “doing nothing” up north, write to your congressman and get the bp in vehicle laptops, in order to run license plates. They will catch more than you can even imagine. Right now they have to call sector dispatch to even get info on a vehicle. Get them those computers and you will see minimum of 5 seizures per shift for each area guaranteed. If you dont want to write that letter, shut your mouth and go back to your farm. REMEMBER THIS: if you dont like whats going on with the fence and border, and the bp, move away. I dont care if your family owned your farm for 70 years, the border was here first, so deal with it.
August 27th, 2010 on 6:21 pm
You are the voice of reason among idiots. :)
August 27th, 2010 on 6:25 pm
Hugh , that is, not the ass known as nope. Ya, you should really leave your family ranch so the government can come in and fix a problem they let happen in the first place. Sounds reasonable enough……
July 20th, 2010 on 5:33 pm
bp hasnt failed, those in washington dc have failed. The top bp brass can only do what the president and such allow them to do. Its not like bp can say to the president, “hey we dont agree with you, and the policies that you are making us do arent working, so were gonna do our own thing.” NOT AT ALL. Blame Congress and your President for failed bp policies.
July 20th, 2010 on 11:15 pm
I have lived in Kino Bay for over 20 years and have seen that the drug cartels are way ahead of your “seal the border” mentality. They have already “commandeered” so much federal land inside the U.S for their farming operation because it is much easier to transport a few pounds of seed rather than tons of finished product across the border. Additionally they have legally bought enough grape vineyards in California to conceal and cultivate all the weed the American users want. You are worried about the competion and drug wars spreading over into the U.S.? It is already there waiting to erupt! The cartels already are in place inside the U.S.
Now the cartel wars that will erupt are on your/our turf. AND the cartel kingpins are in there “legally”. They’re not the stupid mules packing 20 kilos in a backpack across the border. Otherwise you would not see one of their names on the Forbes list of the worlds richest individuals. You don’t become a billionair legally or illegally by being stupid.
Go ahead with the currently popular retorical nonsense. Continue kicking out the “illegales” who many are honest property owners and taxpayers while we still legalize those intellegent individuals who are in control of the operation to grow, manufacture and distribute drugs to a drug hungry nation.
We simply managed to bring in more of the criminal element while “repatriating” some to their “home” country who don’t even know the language because they have lived almost all their lives in the U.S. believing they were there somehow or other “legally” in the U.S. having lived almost all their lives there.
So, go ahead, seal the border now that you have the threat safely inside your/our country.
Now we get to experience the gang wars that many refer to as a problem associated with the producing and trafficing countries and will no longer be able to deny that our U.S. user demand for the drugs is the real source of the drug problem.
Norm
August 27th, 2010 on 6:27 pm
So many people don’t get this, it’s so way to late to try and stop them now.
July 21st, 2010 on 12:05 am
While I certainly cannot blame Arizonans for their attitude towards the Federal government, I have several problems with the first article. First, the assumption is that all the NG troops sent to the “border” are going to be right on the line, binoculars in hand, spotting live activity. To my understanding, their role is more supportive, allowing more BPA’s to do the frontline work, instead of support. Next, if it takes an Agent half an hour to arrive on scene, what makes the author think the suspects are off footloose and fancy-free? As for showing anybody, even a Congressman, where our Agents are located, that suggestion is as dangerous as it is ludicrous. If you’re an Agent in Arizona, how would you like Raul Grijalva to know right where all the Agents are? I somehow think that information would get into the wrong hands and Messr. Grijalva would have a lot more clandestine voters in his district! If the author thinks that illegal activity ends 10 miles from the border, he is naive. There is a good debate about the all-forward strategy. However, in Arizona, if we put all the agents forward within 10 miles of the border, who is going to patrol the rest of the AOR? Local or tribal police are overwhelmed. ICE has been shown to be an ill-conceived and functionally ineffective idea, however well it may have appeared on paper. Oh, well, I guess I shouldn’t worry much. After all, once I graduate Artesia, I’ll just get into my SUV and stare at the traffic. What a numbskull!! As for the fishing net analogy, that betrays an ignorance of both fishing and border protection. Sometimes circumstances call for a looser, wider cast net to catch bigger fish, and sometimes a closer weave to catch more of the smaller ones.
The second article is a more well-rounded piece of objective journalism overall. The first is more typical of a young person, fresh out of journalism school who hasn’t taken the time nor made the effort to understand the many duties of the Border Patrol, and instead relies on ad hominem attack (“failed strategy”, “don’t want anyone…questioning”), naive misunderstandings too numerous to list, an inflated sense of self (use of the Papal “We”, as in “We see lots of them”) and bad analogy (fishing net). If this is the intellectual extent of the Border Patrol’s critics, I’m not worried about losing the debate.
Yours,
Magnus
July 21st, 2010 on 10:50 pm
Mr. Holub,
First and foremost I must state that I am expressing my own opinion and in no way represent the Government or the United States Border Patrol.
That being said, OK, Line all the Border Patrol Agents within 10 miles of the border. Check, now what do you do with the illegal aliens who make it past that 10 mile line? Just let them go? Once the illegal’s reach the 10 mile mark it’s like a goal line and their home free after that? We all know that ICE is overwhelmed with interior enforcement so why make it even easier?
Border Patrol check points and highway roving patrol is designed to catch people who already make it through the first line down by the border, call it a defense in depth. Hint, the military does it too. Does it always work? No it doesn’t but DUI check points are not 100% effective either.
Show the Congressman exactly where each Border Patrol Agent is working? Would you put the same stipulation on your local Police Officer, Sheriffs Deputy, or State Trooper? Do you think the Chief of Police in Tucson could tell you exactly where his Officers are? I don’t think so and they’re in a city not scattered across miles of border.
Forward operating bases and horseback? Already being done. But you have to remember that Congress has placed a cap on the amount of overtime that federal agents, not just Border Patrol agents, can earn. So you put all these agents out in the F.O.B’s and in a few months they have all reached the overtime cap, what then? Remember Border Patrol Agents are not Military members who can be sent where ever and worked for 18 hours a day all for almost nothing. If you want to send BPA’s out for days at a time them you have to pay them for those 48, 72, 120, or even 168 hours. I’m sure if your boss told you that he or she was sending you out to work the next 120 hours straight and then told you that they were only going to pay you for the regular 40 hours you wouldn’t do it. Well neither will the men and women of the Border Patrol. Not counting the problems with Federal labor laws that would come in to play.
As far as Tubac goes can they really document how the Border Patrol checkpoint has driven down home prices? The entire rest of the country had the real estate bubble burst but Tubac’s is all because the Border Patrol has a checkpoint just up the road? Seriously? I’m sure the homeowners in the Tubac area are complaining about the money they are receiving from the Border Patrol Agents temporarily assigned to the Tucson area and are renting homes in that area? Care to tell all the readers what each Border Patrol Agent is paying? To All: Rental rates for Govt employees are public information and are easily found through a google search.
I believe that Border Patrol upper management would gladly listen to realistic ideas on how to improve border security but putting all of the Border Patrol’s manpower within 10 miles of the border is not a valid idea and will not be considered as such.
Reguards,
BP101
July 22nd, 2010 on 9:52 am
Using the current methodology, it is still necessary to have roaming agents north of the boarder. Here in lies the problem. The paradigms and methodologies need to change. First of all, any one crossing the boarder at anywhere other than an established crossing, is probably illegal. Secondly, protecting the boarder is the responsibility of the federal government, therefore as far as I am concerned, a military issue forget Posse Comitatus. Combine the Guard and the BP and I think you could cover the boarder but not within 10 miles, 10 feet. Given the above 2 points and the math that someone had done earlier, the 480 ft between agents is definitely “within range”. Anyone crossing where they aren’t supposed to, drop em. Problem solved. Now if that is too costly or inhumane, then finish the damn fence.
July 23rd, 2010 on 9:10 am
Mr Holub;
Let’s consider your recommendations. If the Diamondbacks followed your advice, they would abandon the outfield and reposition the outfielders and position them within 10 to 15 feet of the batter. The Shortstop is clearly redundant, and should be moved to someplace much closer to homeplate.
The Cardinals and Wildcats should abandon Safeties and Cornerbacks, and put all 11 defenders right on the line of scrimmage, according to your thinking.
As for soccer teams? What a waste of manpower to put a goalie at the far end of the field! Clearly, all of the players should just line up in the middle of the field at the center line and link arms, and nobody would ever score a goal against the team.
Under your plan, the Patrol should hire 100,000,000 new Agents, and we could then just have them line up along the line (as you suggest), link arms, and stand there for their entire 10 hr shift. 2,000 miles of border, 1,700 Agents per mile, 3 shifts. That would only take about 1 million men and women.
That would solve the border crossing problem, and the economy would thrive. We’d just need to figure out where the 200,000 new Agents and their families would live on the southern edges of Pima, Cochise, Yuma and Santa Cruz Counties, and where we would get the water needed to keep those men and women from dying of thirst as they stand there, day and night, in the desert.
I’m sure your rancher friends won’t mind building 20 new towns right along the border to house the Agents and their families, and 20 new schools, and surrender their land (eminent domain!) to the Border Patrol to build on. You clearly don’t want all those Agents to waste time driving more than 10 miles from the border for shift change or shopping or other diversions during their 30 years of service standing watch.
August 27th, 2010 on 9:22 pm
The problem is historic. We have always had a small military. And a small Border Patrol. Historically the Army has been one of the smallest in the world. Amazing isnt it.
Before the Civil War it was less than 30,000. During the Apache Wars here in Arizona we had 2,500 until the last few months of the Geronimo Campaign then we increased it to 5,000 from March to Sept. 1886. This was still only 1/5 of the US Army. Total US Army size from 1871 to 1898 was 25,000.
Pre-WWII we were so small Belgium had a bigger army. No wonder Hitler thought we wimps. (he learned that we werent). North Korea today has an army today of over 1 million. We have 400,000 and are stretched to the limit. These numbers dont count the Air Force and Navy. But I dont see the Air Force and Navy stopping illegal immigration.
We just dont have enough “boots on the ground”. Time to increase the number of Border Patrol! A lot. Or bring in light infantry units to assist.