[2banana]

Under the plan, most of the troops would spend about 21 days, which includes their normal annual two-week training mission, working along the border. The Guard troops would be used for engineering, road and fence building, transportation, logistics and surveillance and reconnaissance.

No weapons, no ammo, no enforcement. They are there for show...

[TheDon]

It must be an election year! The plan has always been to let the BP do the enforcement, with the NG freeing up BP resources to do the enforcement, and building the border fence.

[hawkaw]

I heard they are allowed to carry weapons where required and they have the power to detain. However, they cannot arrest. They would have to wait and let the detainees they captured be arrested by the Border Patrol.

Am I wrong?

[floriduh voter]

The NG are sitting ducks, sad to say.

Now McCain is upset with Limbaugh, Savage and Dobbs for imo telling the truth:

http://www.observer.com/20060529/20060529_Jason_Horowitz_pageone_newsstory1.asp

[old republic]

You know what seems odd to me is the fact that the Federal Government is trying to act like their in charge of the Guard. It tells the Guard what it can and cannot do. The President acts or at least the media gives people the impression that the President is "ordering" the Guard to the border when he is really only recommending to the governors to use their own state militias. The States need no permission from the federal government to use their own National Guard forces when the Guard is not actively called into the service of the Federal Government yet the Senate tries to make a power grab/good soundbyte by passing an amendment authorizing the border states to use the Guard and telling the guard what it can and cannot do. If the Senate wants to act like its in charge of the Guard it can follow the Constitutional rules and federalize the guard by calling it into the ACTIVE service of the Union then they can set the rules and the President can command them. Until then the states call the ALL of the shots with respect to what the Guard does.

[investigateworld]

I suspect there will be more people typing KP rosters than actually on the border doing any work.