Posted on 05/12/2006 1:11:34 PM PDT by VU4G10
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon has begun drawing up plans to send troops and equipment to the U.S. border with Mexico, where hundreds of thousands of migrants enter the country illegally each year, a defense official said on Friday.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld discussed border issues at the Pentagon with his Mexican counterpart, Defense Minister Gen. Gerardo Clemente Ricardo Vega. Mexico and the United States share a 2,000-mile border.
"The U.S. and Mexican governments continue to work together to control the border and collaborate on these important efforts," said U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. J.D. Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman.
"This cooperation includes limited U.S. assistance with training, equipping and funding Mexico security forces so that they can better meet our shared challenges in protecting the border," he said.
Immigration has emerged as one of the top political issues of 2006. President George W. Bush will address the nation on immigration reform on Monday as the Senate renews debate on a bill to tighten border security and give an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants a way to legalize their status.
A defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, said the Defense Department is exploring options for possible use of troops or military assets to help with border security.
Citing what some members called "an invasion" of illegal immigrants across the southern U.S. border, the House of Representatives voted 252-171 on Thursday to permit the Pentagon to assign forces to help in border protections.
Gordon noted that while the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency, under the Department of Homeland Security, is responsible for securing the U.S. borders with Mexico and Canada, the U.S. military performs a limited support role.
For example, military unmanned aerial vehicles have provided border surveillance.
He said any additional military role would be temporary until more civilian border agents could be recruited and trained.
Gordon noted that border security is a civilian law enforcement function. The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, enacted during the post-Civil War reconstruction period, prohibits federal military personnel from acting in a law enforcement capacity within the United States.
However, National Guard troops come under the command of state governors, who can use them for purposes such as border security. The president also has the power to federalize these troops.
That's because the Mexican troops do the smuggling.
There was an armed confornation --- IN THE UNITES STATES --- near Eagle Pass, Texas between local US Sheriffs and Mexican troops that were escorting a drug-carrying (stolen) Cadillac Escalade.
Poor Deputy Sheriff staring down HMV-mounted .50's with his sidearm.
I want General Pershing Part II.
No cut and run!
Support our troops support the president!!
No, it does not. PC relates to domestic. This is international.
Google General Pershing, Ft. Bliss, Texas.
This is not new.
"Pentagon considers sending troops to border"
Sounds like a half-assed attempt to silence us crazy right-wingers who want to preserve the sovriegnty of the USA.
Funny but inaccurate quote from Wikipedia:
"The U.S. Border Patrol is too underfinanced and understaffed to effectively fight illegal immigration (with an average of four agents per mile of the border), and the Mexican government, receiving tens of billons of dollars each year in expatriate remittances, stops one step short from actually encouraging emigration."
One step short? Apparently this author has not seen the pamphlets that they distribute down there in Mexico.
I'd be curious to hear a legal-eagle's opinion on the PC, but it seems to me that protecting our own borders should certainly be something our troops can do.
This is great news and it's about time!
They are not there to stop it. They are there to regulate and collect their take
Was he able to say this with a straight face?
Yeah, I guess with that type logic, we shouldn't lower spending either "cause it just being done for the wrong reason", "should have done it sooner"....and we shouldn't cut taxes because "they're only doing it to make tax-cutter voters happy" "and it should have been done sooner".
My God are a minority on the right a bunch of whiny cry babies like I didn't imagine existed within our party. Thank God we have real men out fighting in this WOT and not these bunch of doom and gloomers who only know how to cry and whine that the end is near and NEVER enough is being done.
You people (and it is clear who you are) are pathetic.
I meant the border troops ... sorry it wasn't more clear, bad joke, my bad.
Why not simply use military assets to find people and vehicles heading for the border from Mexico that aren't headed for manned border crossings. If the military thinks those people and vehicles constitute a threat to the security of the United States, that is, an invasion, they simply smoke them just inside the United States.
Guys with M-16s can be bribed.
Money has the power to make smugglers invisible. This is a little-known but amazing fact.
"Always keep enough Gold to bribe the border gaurds".
Old saying.
Aid to the invader?
An excellent point.
Net net: We ship them money and guns, they send us Jose, Maria and the kids.
I guess this is a good thing, to have military presence in border patrol. I was also shocked on my way home yesterday to hear a radio ad recruiting people to be border patrol agents. Shocked... I wonder if they will be able to find Americans to do the job or will have to resort to hiring those who do the work Americans will not do.
I guess this is a good thing, to have military presence in border patrol. I was also shocked on my way home yesterday to hear a radio ad recruiting people to be border patrol agents. Shocked... I wonder if they will be able to find Americans to do the job or will have to resort to hiring those who do the work Americans will not do.
I guess this is a good thing, to have military presence in border patrol. I was also shocked on my way home yesterday to hear a radio ad recruiting people to be border patrol agents. Shocked... I wonder if they will be able to find Americans to do the job or will have to resort to hiring those who do the work Americans will not do.
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