Posted on 10/25/2009 3:32:50 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch
MCALLEN - The U.S. Coast Guard patrols the coasts, and a limited stretch of the Rio Grande, but a bill in the works would change that.
Congressman Henry Cuellar wants the coast guard to work out a plan that would help secure the 1200 miles of the river.
It's aimed at addressing drug and human smuggling along the river.
Right now, the river is only patrolled by local law enforcement and Customs and Border Protection.
The bill is called the Coast Guard Authorization Act.
What Coast Guard vessel draws a draft of four inches?
Are we putting Coast Guardsmen in flat bottom john boats these days.
How bout we send John Kerry with a swift boat. He can make a Christmas eve raid into Honduras all by his lonesome.
How much of the river is navigable? Certainly not all 1200 miles.
Coasties in hip boots ping.
The Rio Grande is like John Kerry, 6 inches deep and a mile wide at the mouth.
The wife and I were Big Bend National Park last week at looked out over the Rio Grande at a number of viewpoints. It really isn’t necessary to have thousands of people patrolling the river. The area inland is very wide open and very inhospitable. I think it would be very difficult for large groups of illegals to escape detection. We did pass through one checkpoint about thirty miles or so north of the park. On a trip to the southwest two years ago, we noticed a lot more border patrols around southern Arizona.
Above Big Bend and below Del Rio, not so much.
At least!
All joking aside, that is the direction of the "invasion" and this would at least solve the problem of troops on private property.
“How much of the river is navigable? Certainly not all 1200 miles.”
Actually not much. Probably a few stretches of a couple of miles or so. But . . .
I’m not so sure that it’s a bad idea. Given the level violence that’s been going on near the border - a bit more fire power on a few strategically placed “coast guard” stations might be a good idea.
If we’re going to do that, we should just get the TNG to do it. Coast Guard has enough jobs without having to monitor an internal river, and I wonder if it might violate the Passe Comitatus Act.
They’d have to carry it over Falcon and Amistad dams.
Ping!
If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.
SEC. 1324. MISSION REQUIREMENT ANALYSIS FOR NAVIGABLE PORTIONS OF THE RIO GRANDE RIVER, TEXAS, INTERNATIONAL WATER BOUNDARY.
Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of the department in which the Coast Guard is operating shall prepare a mission requirement analysis for the navigable portions of the Rio Grande River, Texas, international water boundary. The analysis shall take into account the Coast Guard's involvement on the Rio Grande River by assessing Coast Guard missions, assets, and personnel assigned along the Rio Grande River. The analysis shall also identify what would be needed for the Coast Guard to increase search and rescue operations, migrant interdiction operations, and drug interdiction operations.
CG is not part of the Defense Department. They are part of Homeland Security and is chartered with protecting water boundaries of the US. Rio Grande fulfills that definition. They would prolly use aircraft anyway.
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