4um: Border governors worried about National Guard pullout

Border governors worried about National Guard pullout By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer Fri Jun 20, 3:01 PM ET

McALLEN, Texas - The thousands of National Guardsmen sent to reinforce the U.S.-Mexican border two years ago have almost completely withdrawn, despite pleas from border-state governors once skeptical of using soldiers to catch illegal immigrants and drug smugglers.

When the Guard was posted along the southern frontier in 2006 to help the strapped Border Patrol, critics warned that sending soldiers would be an insult to Mexico and that innocents could get shot by troops trained for combat, not law enforcement.

But none of that happened, and now those worries have given way to fears that a bloody drug-cartel war on the Mexican side will spill into the U.S. and overwhelm the Border Patrol.

The four border-state governors who contributed the bulk of the troops have tried in vain to persuade Congress and the White House to extend the Guard's presence, which will end as scheduled on July 15.

"Until Border Patrol has all its new boots on the ground, there's going to be a vulnerability," said Pahl Shipley, spokesman for New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.

The Border Patrol said the National Guard force, which reached a peak of 6,000 before diminishing last year, bought it enough time to hire and train more agents. The patrol expressed confidence that it can hold the line on its own.

"We're fine taking over. It's all part of our plan," said Border Patrol spokesman Lloyd Easterling.

Only a few hundred Guardsmen are left on the border, most of them finishing up construction projects in Arizona and New Mexico.

The Guardsmen were sent in a support role, not to seize illegal immigrants and smugglers. They used helicopters and night-vision gear to watch for people trying to slip across the border, then told Border Patrol agents where to find them. They also built roads and fences.

The Border Patrol's ranks have swelled by nearly 5,000 since the beginning of Operation Jump Start, reaching more than 16,400. But the Border Patrol is still short of the 18,000-agent goal set for the end of the year. And border-state officials note those numbers include new hires who are not necessarily in place along the border yet.

Also, drug violence is surging in Mexican border areas, and "we certainly don't want that to spill across the border," Shipley said.

In late April, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano joined Richardson in signing a letter to Capitol Hill leaders begging them to extend the National Guard's presence.

Just look here on the internet at the advertising of jobs for Border Patrol Agents.

Armed Mexicans Attack Unarmed National Guard Troops on US Soil

Submitted by MichaelVail on Sat, 01/06/2007 - 7:13pm.

Minutemen comment on shooting on the border

Web commentary
Posted: Jan 6, 2007

In a story that should have rang alarm bells in very newsroom across the nation, armed Mexican entered the United States and attacked unarmed National Guard troops working at a border patrol post near the US-Mexican border. The troops had to retreat to safety.

Not surprisingly, the news story received scant coverage by the mainstream news media and hardly a mention on the Fox News Channel. It's a story that should outrage all Americans including President George W. Bush.

Unfortunately, President Bush and his Administration did not even comment on this vicious attack on unarmed US troops as well as the unbridled assault on American sovereignty. During a press conference held on Friday afternoon by Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, there was not one word about this unprovoked attack on soldiers.

According to syndicated columnist and journalist Sher Zieve, the attack was initiated by several Mexican nations at about 1:00 AM (et) Thursday morning at one of the National Guard entrance identification team posts near Sasabe. The troops retreated to safety. According to KVOA TV News reports in Tucson, AZ, no shots were fired and no one suffered injuries.

The US Border Patrol is conducting an investigation into the attack. Investigators are attempting to determine who the armed men were, what they were doing and why they approached the post before returning to Mexico.

A Border Patrol agent, who requested anonymity, says that the well-armed intruders were drug traffickers who are fully aware US National Guard troops are prohibited from carrying any type of weapon and have been ordered not to confront lawbreakers coming across the border. The Guard troops are not allowed to apprehend illegal entrants, as well.

"Basically, the National Guard troops are doing what private groups such as the Minuteman Project have done at US borders -- observe and report," said a Homeland Security Department official.

What he failed to mention is that the Minutemen didn't cost taxpayers millions of dollars to just stand at the border unarmed and act as the eyes and ears of the already stretched-thin Border patrol agents.

"We don't know if this was a matter of somebody coming up accidentally on the individuals, coming up intentionally on the individuals, or some sort of a diversion," Rob Daniels, spokesman for the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector told KVOA News.

The west desert corridor has been the busiest in the Tucson Sector for marijuana seizures since last year. According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, agents have seized 124,000 pounds of marijuana there since October 1, 2006.

With more Border Patrol agents and National Guard troops patrolling the Arizona section of the U.S.-Mexican border, it has become more difficult to smuggle drugs and people across may have caused drug and human smugglers to become more aggressive.

Since arriving in mid-June, the Guard has assisted the Border Patrol by manning control rooms, doing vehicle and helicopter maintenance, repairing roads and fences, constructing vehicle barriers and fences and spotting and reporting illegal entrants in entrance identification teams.

There are dozens of National Guard entrance identification teams along the Mexican border, including east and west of both Nogales and Sasabe and on the Tohono O'odham Nation. All of the teams are unarmed.

"This is one of the most expensive dog-and-pony shows dreamed up by the Washington establishment in recent history. Imagine using trained troops on the US border unarmed and prohibited from taking action. It's a scam," says Mike Baker, a political analyst.

Jim Kouri, CPP
Columnist Jim Kouri, National Association of Chiefs of Police Vice President

"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.”—Samuel Adams

Eze 38:10 ¶ Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, [that] at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:

Eze 38:11 And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages [ http://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/Zec/Zec002.html#4 ]; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,

Eze 38:13 Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?

"....The United States of America is the nationality that is promised in the prophetic Scriptures to arise in the latter times as Israel Restored. It has long been a favorite theory, both with Jewish and Christian writers, that the nationality to be gathered together in the latter days, was understood to mean the returned or restoration of the scattered sons of Abraham to the land of Palestine.

We are not surprised at the confidence with which this opinion has been entertained from age to age, because it is a legitimate a priori interpretation, seeing this nationality is called "Israel" by the prophets.

In a conversation had with a venerable Bishop of the Episcopal Church, he inquired of us: "Sir, by what construction of language do you make the great nationality, promised to arise in the latter times, to mean the United States? That the Bible authorizes us to expect such a nationality there can be no doubt; but how do you make out that nationality to be the United States of America, as it was promised to be Israel?" To which we replied: "Beloved Bishop, the predictions of the prophets are put up in Hebrew dress; the regalia is Mosaic, the custom is Israelitish. They did not say, friends of civil and religious liberty, Americans, or even Christians; but they used the best terms they had on hand: they said 'Israel.'" ......."

In two discourses delivered in the capitol of the United States, at the request of several members of Congress, on the anniversary of Washington's birthday in 1857.

"...as long as there..remain active enemies of the Christian church, we may hope to become Master of the World...the future Jewish King will never reign in the world before Christianity is overthrown - B'nai B'rith speech http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/luther.htm / http://bible.cc/psalms/83-4.htm

And where is my jackass gov's signature? We have more open border than all the other three combined, I think...