Posted on 05/16/2006 12:39:37 PM PDT by Racehorse
CAMP MABRY, Austin, Texas (May 16, 2006) – In an address to the nation Monday evening, President George W. Bush advised the American people of his plan to work with governors to temporarily deploy 6,000 National Guardsmen from California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas to the southern border.
The Texas National Guard is in the planning phases to boost border presence until more border patrol agents are trained and ready to replace the Soldiers and Airmen.
Texas Guard men and women will serve as force multipliers to the U.S. Customs & Border Protection Agency and are expected to assist with analysis of intelligence, engineering, logistical support, maintenance of surveillance systems and the building of additional patrol roads.
The Texas Guard men and women will remain under the control of Governor Perry. Texas accounts for almost two-thirds of the United States’ southern border.
David Aguilar, U.S. Border Patrol chief, said Monday that he welcomes the assistance and presence of the Texas National Guard Soldiers and Airmen. He cited advantages such as reduction of narcotics trafficking and the enhanced ability for his agents to deter illegal incursions.
Our National Guard has been doing this for years.
Remember the Alamo!
Doing what, specifically?
With respect to drug interdiction, the Texas National Guard has been doing the same in a very big way with troops assigned on a full-time basis.
Tell your story. Much of this has been out of view for too long.
R.
Well, it's not good enough because Bush should be impeached **sniffy sniffy**
Yep. And the NG has been doing it since 9/11/01. But they're stretched too thin, don'tcha know. We should bring our troops home from this illegal war on terror to take care of all those Mexicans who are sworn to kill us all.
For those who can't open a PDF file, I've written down what the link from CNN says. I don't know how to print out a PDF file on this forum so here is what the link details:
Do you favor or opposed putting the National Guard on the border?
Favor: 75%
Oppose: 21%
No opinion: 2%
Do you favor or oppose Bush policies on immigration:
Pre Speech:
Positive: 42%
Negative: 38%
No opinion: 2%
After the speech:
Positive: 67%
Oppose: 27%
No opinion: 6%
What was your impression of the speech:
Very positive: 40%
Somewhat positive: 39%
Somewhat negative: 11%
Very negative: 7%
Both: 2%
No opinion: 2%
Do you consider immigration important to the fall elections:
Most important issue: 7%
Very important: 47%
SOmewhat important: 37%
Not important: 7%
No opinion: 2%
Do you favor or oppose the proposal regarding illegals already here for a number of years and the plan for them to stay and earn citizenship:
Favor: 74%
Oppose: 20%
No opinion: 6%
Do you favor or oppose the proposal Bush made to allow foreign people to enter the US to work temporarily?
Favor: 69%
Oppose: 27%
No opinion: 4%
http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2006/images/05/15/top13-may15-2006.pdf
"Our National Guard has been doing this for years."
Please don't undercut Bush's manipulation of the NG into a dog and pony show. His radical position is "moderate."
Things might turn around for Rove, it was a good idea to promote the NG show for a weekend, rather than, say, the guest worker program. I think it worked to some degree. If one prominent Democrat cracks from their self-imposed trance of silence and criticizes the plans, going on talk shows, the MSM will be hard-pressed to continue the silence.
For comedy, go to Dailykos.com and other "liberal" sites. The majority view by far is Bush's speech was to distract from Iraq, look like a leader, etc. etc. not to do with pushing amnesty plus worker programs too. A voice here and their voices dissent, but mostly silence. I suspect as with the maligned "Bushbotism" there is "Dembotism" - and it's in crisis in face of the reality the Dems are more than the Repubs out to screw the middle and lower classes. When facts conflict, many react with feigned ignorance.
With tours possibly ranging up to a year in length, I think this will severely impact the Gaurd in many Midwestern states for sure. I was in a Gaurd unit in Iowa and a lot of the soldiers there were farmers. Who is going to take care of their farm for a year tour?
"Tell your story..."
I'm not going to name units, but this is how it generally works here.
Most of our illegals come from the Dominican Republic to the west. Some island-hop from St. Maarten to the east.
There's a radio communications network that covers the entire island, which is about the size of Connecticut. The ANG has radar. The U.S. Coast Guard, ICE/Border Patrol/Customs, the Puerto Rico Police and the National Guard all tap into both resources.
Specifically, the Army National Guard patrols the shoreline (300 miles, give or take) with scout helicopters using night vision devices and FLIR. Any contact with illegals trying to reach our shores (or drug smugglers, etc.)is reported to the network, and the closest law enforcement assets are directed to the spot. Many times the Coast Guard intercepts the illegals at sea. If they do reach the shore, then the Puerto Rico Police makes the arrests and turns them over to the Feds.
The Puerto Rico Police Department also patrols, makes contact with, and if they have the assets in place, they will take the initiative and conduct operations themselves and then would turn over any illegals or contraband to the Feds.
In return, the Feds share the proceeds of the "loot" with the Puerto Rico Police and the National Guard.
This is all with a minimal Border Patrol presence.
And before anybody asks, yes, there's still the inter-agency bickering, jockying for bragging rights, fighting for funds, keystone cop snafus, etc. Yes, many illegals still get through. But at least on most nights you can sit on the beach, which is our border, and actually see somebody patrolling.
I was talking about a specific National Guard, that has been patrolling a U.S. frontier already for years. See my previous post.
Much thanks for the telling of it.
I, for one, did not know.
R.
Prepares to do what? Watch the illegals break into the country? They aren't allowed to stop them.
I just heard Jay Leno say something like...Oh Great the President just put National Guard on the wall. Now the wall will be protected 1 weekend a month, two weeks a year. Obviously he got a great laugh from the audience. I guess a cheap shot is a cheap shot. I love Jay and he is always bashing everyone, but to bash military was a bit low. Oh, and I am an active guy giving kudos to reservists.
And to add a little more to this:
At the San Juan International Airport, right past the TSA security checkpoints, the Feds/Immigration/ICE have stations with federal agents who ask people going to the gates about their citizenship status. This is not in the international terminal. This is inside the domestic U.S. terminal, between TSA and the gates. They do this in a seemingly casual way, but what they're actually doing is profiling (don't tell the ACLU). Since most of these agents are Spanish-speaking Puerto Ricans, they can tell differences in accents. If they detect a non-Puerto Rican or non-Cuban accent, they would many times further scrutinize the would be passenger.
It's a little bit unsettling for some people to have a passport checkpoint within domestic U.S. territory, but they catch many illegals trying to make it to the U.S. mainland this way.
With all due respect, you have no idea what is revving up.
You should have a bit of patience. If past experience holds true, the year long commitment will evolve into a permanent role for the Guard. Whatever role the Guard plays and wherever they play it, you will see a decrease in the number of illegals coming across the river.
The military resources of the Texas Military Forces are simply awesome, to be humble about it.
The problem is they're merely unarmed observers, basically doing the same job the Minute Men have been doing. Defineitly not locked & Loaded!
Apparently the Guard troops are going to be doing this on their Annual Tours, based on various press accounts I've seen and heard in the last 24 hours.
I'm retired Regular AF, and had little exposure to the Air Guard except for a few Air Guard officers I dealt with from time to time in the Pentagon. I've had zero exposure to the Army Guard. But Reservist Annual Tours were typically about two weeks long, and I'll assume that a Guard Annual Tour is about the same two week period.
Given that, how much time will the individual Guardsmen actually spend performing these duties, whatever they turn out to be?
What I mean is, between in-processing, out-processing, various other Annual Tour requirements, being in-briefed, doing an out-brief with their replacement, etc, etc, how much time does this leave to actually perform duties - five or six days? Maybe?
This looks like it is mostly for show, and I'm trying to be generous here. And I doubt that the Guardsmen are actually going to get much meaningful duty, much less meaningful training, done on their Annual Tours. This is going to be something of an open joke amongst uniformed personnel of all services.
The Guard, and the American people, deserve better.
"Prepares to do what? Watch the illegals break into the country? They aren't allowed to stop them."
According to Bush help with administration for the 9000 BP agents. So 9000 agents need 6000 troops to do paper work. Yep that sounds like the federal government to me.
you will see a decrease in the number of illegals coming across the river.
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