Posted on 10/05/2005 3:06:25 AM PDT by RWR8189
Several border area Congressmen said Tuesday they're preparing to introduce a measure calling for a federally funded, sworn border militia to patrol the country's borders and assist the U.S. Border Patrol, the Office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and other federal border security agencies, 1200 WOAI news reported today.
U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) says the proposal calls for the federal government to spend $100 million over several years to hire, train, and equip 'reserve deputies,' who would patrol the border under the authority of border county sheriffs.
Cuellar said the measure is in response to the activities of the Minutemen and other civilian groups which have recently encamped in border areas of Texas and Arizona, and claimed to be helping report illegal immigrant activity.
"These people would be trained, they would be sworn, they would be inside the law enforcement chain of command, and this would be a lot different than the Minutemen, who are out there on their own, and we don't know who they are or what their motives are," Cuellar said.
Other members of Congress who Cuellar says have signed on as co sponsors include Republicans John Culbertson and Henry Bonilla, both of Texas. he said he expects to obtain additional co-sponsors before the measure is introduced, which he expects to occur before the end of October.
Cuellar says the members of the militia would be 'reserve deputies.' He says they could be retired law enforcement officers, or part time officers who work on an as needed basis at the command of local officials.
"Those sheriffs would work arm in arm with the Border Patrol to provide security along the border."
Cuellar says how the reserve officers would be deployed, what their duties would be, and whether they would be armed would be up to the local officials and would be handled according to the laws in place in each jurisdiction.
He says the militia would have a decided advantage over the Minutemen, whom Cuellar said he 'doesn't want' in Texas. Cuellar said most of the Minutemen are untrained volunteers from out of the area, and the reserve deputies would have to be residents of the county where they would be deputized.
"They know the trails," he said. "They know the area because they have been doing this kind of work for a long time."
Cuellar unveiled his proposal at a time when several hundred Minutemen volunteers are engaged in a border watch operation in Brooks County, in rural south Texas.
Sounds like a plan to me. Wonder if the minutemen will go for it?
Good.
Thanks for posting. Interesting.
Hey Feds, don't throw more money at the problem. Fix it with what you already have, like the rest of us with finite funds have to.
Slick claimed he put 100,000 new cops on the street. Should have put all of them on our southern border.
Why do we have a National Guard?
Let the military do it. They're being paid anyway.
Amazing. One of the only things they are Constitutionally charged with doing and they're still dickering over how to get it done.
Very strange idea. Why?
Every coyote and illegal immigrant will now presume all residents are BP. This is a very dangerous proposition for the people who join this force.
"the reserve deputies would have to be residents of the county where they would be deputized....Very strange idea.
Why?
Good question.
The obvious answer is that not only would it be easier to control anything they may say to the media, but can't you imagine a posse of these dudes comprised of Hispanics with family in Mexico that they'd love to help cross the border?
Worse yet, I hadn't even thought it through to that point yet.
Those heavily Blue counties in South Texas are going to end up with competing Sheriffs' posses. (again)
It sounds like a great make-work project though. Get paid by Uncle Sam to put on a uniform and take your government issued 4 wheeler/pickup out into the open areas and drive around for a few hours, all whilst getting paid at a federal employee pay scale. Those counties are going to end up with 0% official unemployment as everyone and their father gets in on this pork.
We do know who the Minutemen are. They are American Patriots trying to protect the U.S.A.!!!
The Border militia will be a great idea - if we get rid of the Border Patrol. If one service isn't doing the job it is supposed to, why should tax payers have to foot the bill for a redundant agency that (theoretically) will do what the first agency is supposed to do?
This is typical big government, leftist thinking. Why not have two bloated government agencies to do the job that one government agency is supposed to do?
If the Bush administration wants to re-make the Border Patrol into the Border Militia, that's fine. But, if the two agencies are supposed to operate side-by-side, this is a deal-breaker.
I thought you guys wanted to beef up the border? Here's your chance. The people manning the border have to come from somewhere. Might as well recruit the minutemen as anyone else.
Yes, but are they effective?
Beefing up the border is fine, Jim. Funding another agency to do the job that the Border Patrol is supposed to be doing makes no sense.
When we have to have two agencies doing the job that one agency is supposed to be doing now, something is terribly, terribly wrong with the equation.
Recruit them into the Border Patrol Agency then. What's the difference?
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