Guard presence along border to end this summer

[unhappycamper]

Staff Sgt. Kevin Black of the New York National Guard keeps an eye on a group of suspected illegal immigrants near the Arizona-Mexico border in January 2007. A program that has rotated thousands of Guardsmen along the Mexican border to augment U.S. Border Patrol agents will end in four months, despite calls by at least one governor to extend the mission.


Guard presence along border to end this summer
By Arthur H. Rotstein - The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Mar 23, 2008 11:23:37 EDT

TUCSON, Ariz. — A program that has rotated thousands of National Guardsmen along the Mexican border to augment U.S. Border Patrol agents comes to a close in four months, despite calls by at least one border governor to extend the Guard’s mission.

Operation Jump Start began in mid-2006, deploying up to 6,000 troops at a time during the first 12 months in non-enforcement roles that freed up Border Patrol agents for front-line duty.

Through January, the National Guard Bureau spent more than $1 billion on the program — nearly $212 million in the 2006 fiscal year, $687 million in fiscal 2007 and $136 million during the first four months of fiscal 2008.

The guardsmen have built roads and fences, maintained equipment, provided aviation support and monitored cameras. They’ve also spent months at border outposts, calling in Border Patrol agents to capture illegal immigrants and drug runners they spot entering the country.

Jump Start was designed as a stopgap to give the Border Patrol additional help while the agency ramped up its numbers.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/03/ap_guard_mexicoborder_032308/

[babylonsister]

1. I guess their presence wasn't all that important after all. Either that

or they're needed elsewhere. :shrug: