National Guard Leaving Border

National Guard troops assisting U.S. Customs Service agents in four states along the U.S.-Mexico border since March are being sent home or reassigned.

In all, 378 guardsmen assigned in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California are being relieved, and only 248 will remain for now at dozens of ports of entry along the Canadian boundary, said Jim Michie, a customs spokesman in Washington, D.C.

Another 517 soldiers assigned to help Border Patrol and INS on the Mexican border will continue to do so, officials said.

Mr. Michie said the guardsmen are being released from customs duty because that agency is now fully staffed on the Mexican border and able to handle the workload itself with its own personnel.

Customs spokesman Roger Maier in El Paso attributed the move to budgetary concerns.

There are 25 U.S. ports of entry on the southern border plus 130 on the U.S.-Canadian frontier – many of those being small two- to four-person sites open less than 12 hours a day.

All have been staffed around the clock for security purposes since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, "but it's costing a lot," Mr. Michie said.

Maj. Mike Whetston, a spokesman for the Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Va., said Customs, the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Border Patrol, part of the INS, agreed in mid-March to reimburse the Department of Defense $75 million for the approximately 1,600 guardsmen assigned to assist the agencies for six months.

All were detailed to the federal agencies along the border to strengthen border security. Maj. Whetston said he had heard that $30 million would be needed to reimburse the Defense Department for 179 days.

All those on border assignments have been federalized because they are supporting federal agencies on federal borders, Maj. Whetston said.

A new border program is contemplated, using a dozen Guard personnel to help rebuild roads and fences along the Mexico-New Mexico border. The proposal is expected to be discussed May 29 in El Paso, officials said.

"OK, Mamacita. It's time. They are taking away the soldiers, just like Presidente Fox said they would. Get everyone together and make sure you charge those not of our village at least 1,000." "Be sure it is paid in dollars not pesos."

"Oh, and call Presidente Fox and the area rep for each of the cartels and tell them that we should be able to move at least '300 boxes of strawberries' across into the EU. He'll know what I mean."

"And, remember that dark guy with the turban who knocked on the door, we'll he should be back once he knows the soldiers are gone, but, look for him anyway and tell him we should be able to handle four and, maybe, all of those packages he asked us about."

"Yep, we haven't made any money in a long time because of those damn soldiers but the PANistas have demanded their taxes. We could make a bundle. Maybe this trip, I won't steal a new car, maybe, I'll buy one."

Two brothers accused in plot to smuggle immigrants into New Jersey

5/22/02 - The Associated Press

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- Two Egyptian men allegedly took part in a plot to smuggle Middle Eastern immigrants into New Jersey by way of Mexico, according to federal authorities. Adel R. Nasr, 22, of Hamilton, and his brother, Gamal Abdalgalil Nasr, 22, of Queens, N.Y., were charged Tuesday with aiding or abetting a scheme to bring undocumented aliens into the United States.

Ernestine Fobbs, a spokeswoman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, told The Record of Hackensack that the pair had been arrested for immigration violations, but she declined to comment further.

Court documents unsealed late Tuesday claim the men worked with an unidentified Egyptian national based in Guatemala. The ring allegedly helped "large numbers" of illegal immigrants by flying them on tourist visas from Egypt and the Middle East to Brazil, then to Guatemala and Mexico before being taken over the southwest U.S. border.

The immigrants were each charged $8,000, according to the court documents.

Some of the planning for one phase of the smuggling operation unfolded last month inside Adel Nasr's apartment in Mercer County, court documents said. A Queens apartment allegedly used in the scheme also has been under FBI surveillance for the past week.

Many of those who were smuggled by the group come from or have contacts in the Egyptian town of Bata, an impoverished community 20 miles north of Cairo, the documents stated. Some of the immigrants have been captured by U.S. Border Patrol agents, officials said.

I have come the the conclusion that there is no one, I mean N-O O-N-E in our government that has a lick of sense. All the stupid, inept people of the United States somehow wind up in our government running things.

Therefore, I have further concluded that we are basically screwed as a nation. We cannot have stupid people with no common sense in charge and have a hope of surviving......

Keep your powder dry!.....B.O.

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