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Guard Vows 6,000 Troops for Border
Border Patrol officers work the streets of San Elizario, Tex., on bicycles. President Bush has ordered adding about 6,000 National Guard troops to help the agency "gain full control" of the 2,000-mile-long U.S.-Mexico border.
(By Sarah L. Voisin -- The Washington Post)
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"There are three glass balls we have to manage or juggle . . . we can certainly do what is being asked by our commander in chief with about 2 percent of my force structure," he said.
McHale said yesterday that the Guard's core missions will include using helicopters and ground sensors to detect illegal border crossing, building barriers and roads, and medical and logistics support. Active-duty forces may be called for certain "niche capabilities," as well as civilian contractors. The military will seek reimbursement for its costs, he said.
About 90 percent of the 12,000-member U.S. Border Patrol work on the southern border, twice as many as a decade ago. But the buildup has only driven up the cost of each arrest and reduced the chances that an illegal immigrant is caught, researchers said, while the number of those living inside the United States doubled to nearly 12 million.
T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, the agents union, said: "It's going to have very little effect. . . . This is a smoke screen, a diversion."
"The issue is whether the National Guard is there for anything but show," said Frank D. Bean, co-director of the Center for Research on Immigration, Population and Public Policy at the University of California at Irvine.
Activists who take a harder line toward illegal immigration also said that the border security measures issued by the administration do little more than shift the focus away from the issue of removing the millions of illegal immigrants living in the United States. At the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, which calls for stronger enforcement, Executive Director Mark Krikorian called Bush's speech "inspired by Mary Poppins -- a spoonful of border enforcement makes the amnesty go down."
He called use of National Guard troops "about number 17 on the list" of things to do, after targeting immigrant fugitives and U.S. companies that use illegal labor.
"It was insulting, really," Krikorian said. "He must think people who oppose amnesty are a bunch of troglodytes that can be induced by cosmetic measures."
But the president's proposal was deemed too tough by activists who helped organize recent demonstrations on behalf of illegal immigrants. Deepak Bhargava, executive director of the Center for Community Change, said Bush pandered to right-wing supporters who want to close the border, while activists planned a national lobbying effort today to push for a broader legalization plan.
"The message that President Bush is sending to Mexico and the countries in Central America is that Mexico is a threat to the national security of the U.S., and they need to be dealt with militarily, and migrants are seen as enemies," said Angela Sanbrano, executive director of the Central American Resource Center in Los Angeles. "It's just bad foreign policy."
Staff writers Ann Scott Tyson and Krissah Williams contributed to this report.
