Posted on 04/11/2010 8:33:20 AM PDT by SandRat
A day after laying rancher Robert Krentz to rest at funeral services in Douglas, his family and others are still waiting for troops to be deployed to the border.
The Krentz family called for the active-duty military to be deployed, and many of their neighbors have demanded that troops not only come but be given authority to track lawbreakers, arrest them and - if threatened - shoot.
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer wants to deploy 250 additional National Guard soldiers but doesn't want to use state funds to pay for them. The federal government hasn't answered a formal request from her and other border governors.
But even if troops are sent, it's unclear whether they would perform the active, law-enforcing role supporters envision. The National Guard can be assigned to law-enforcement duties, as it was during President Obama's inauguration and after Hurricane Katrina, but the Guard has been assigned only support duties in past border missions.
"The Obama administration would likely be quite cautious in whatever role they assign to troops placed at the border, and for good reason - to try to minimize the possible unwanted impacts of such a large demonstration of force," said David Shirk, a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington D.C. and director of the Trans-Border Institute at the University of San Diego.
The 140 Arizona National Guard troops now assigned to support the Border Patrol in Arizona help with surveillance, analysis and drug-education efforts.
In the Operation Jump Start border mission that ran from 2006 to 2008 across the U.S.-Mexico border, the National Guard helped the Border Patrol by building roads and fences, operating radios and sitting in observatory posts near the border to report activity. Guardsmen were not allowed to apprehend or engage.
That's not what Portal-area resident Tom Hays and others want.
"If you send the National Guard, you've got to let them do their job," said Hays. "If not, it's like having nobody at all."
Posse Comitatus Act
Despite what many think, the federal Posse Comitatus Act does not prohibit the National Guard from taking an active law-enforcement role on American soil, said Rick Breitenfeldt of the National Guard Bureau.
"We can do pretty much anything that we are asked by the Department of Defense or the president of the United States," Breitenfeldt said.
At Obama's inauguration, 10,000 National Guard troops were deputized by Washington, D.C., police so they could take law-enforcement action if necessary.
During Operation Jump Start, the National Guard was given Title 32 status, which allows a more active role. But since it was asked only to support the Border Patrol and report illegal entries, it stayed within that role, Breitenfeldt said.
When a group of armed men approached a post east of Sasabe on Jan. 3, 2007, four Tennessee guardsmen vacated the post and moved back. The retreat set off a firestorm of criticism and led to a hearing of a state House committee where a National Guard major had to defend the guardsmen's actions.
SUPPORT ROLE OK
The risks of an active military presence on the border became clear in 1997, when U.S. Marines working on an anti-drug task force shot an 18-year-old U.S. citizen near the border town of Redford, Texas. Esequiel Hernandez Jr. was herding goats when he fired his antique .22 caliber rifle and the camouflaged Marines, feeling threatened, killed him.
This time around, Border Patrol agents would welcome the National Guard in a support role, but asking guardsmen to track and apprehend illegal border crossers could be problematic, said Brandon Judd, executive vice president of the Arizona chapter of the Border Patrol agents union, Local 2544.
Border Patrol agents receive extensive training to ensure they don't violate the rights of people they encounter, he said.
"Without the proper training, you open yourself up to liability," Judd said.
Calls for the military, which date to the Mexican Revolution, have become politically motivated, knee-jerk overreactions to incidents, said Wayne Cornelius, director emeritus of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at University of California-San Diego. It would be best to leave border work to the Border Patrol, he said.
"They are the trained professionals in immigration law enforcement, including tracking and apprehending people-smugglers," Cornelius wrote in an e-mail. "We should leave it to the professionals."
Since Krentz's March 27 killing, Homeland Security officials have moved more Border Patrol agents into the area.
FOR AND AGAINST
For many residents shaken by the killing of the well-known and highly regarded Krentz, the deployment of troops is necessary.
"The Mexican outlaws have total control, and it's going to get worse," said rancher Ed Ashurst, a neighbor of Krentz's. "There are going to be more dead people until they put the Army on the line."
Others, though, don't want troops back, at least in the form they've been there before.
"Everybody wants them to put troops on the line," said rancher Wendy Glenn, a neighbor and friend of Krentz's. "There would be more people putting out tracks, and vehicles tearing up open space wherever they go."
Instead, Glenn said, she wishes Border Patrol agents would be better equipped with radios that can communicate with one another across sector lines and with more mobile radar stations. Others want more cell-phone towers to speed up emergency response times.
Another Krentz neighbor, Bill McDonald, said the National Guard would help in the short run but the problems associated with smuggling require a more sustainable response.
"Once you pull them out, what happens?" said McDonald, a fifth-generation rancher. "There has to be a way better strategy than slapping the guard in there when things get tough."
UP TO WASHINGTON
A federal decision to send the National Guard would have to come from the White House or the Department of Defense. The White House says it's committed to securing the nation's borders but wouldn't say if it plans to send troops.
Border state governors have been requesting the National Guard since spring 2009, but the Obama administration has been reluctant to pull the trigger because of concerns about militarization and the strain troops are already under with oversees conflicts, said Shirk of the Trans-Border Institute.
Cost is an issue, too. The federal government spent $1.2 billion to send 6,000 National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border under Operation Jump Start.
Brewer said the state would be able to sustain the Guard only for a short period, which is why she wants the federal government to step up and pay. Securing the border is a federal responsibility, she said.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson sent an additional 35 guardsmen to the border in reaction to the Krentz killing, but it's unclear how long they'll be there.
One thing is clear: the killing of Krentz and subsequent calls for troops have amped up the pressure on the Obama administration, Shirk said.
"It's an election year, and they certainly don't want to be seen as soft on national security," Shirk said. "They are more likely to send troops this year than last year because there is a greater sense of urgency."
Searching for a killer
The Cochise County Sheriff's Office is investigating the March 27 shooting death of rancher Robert Krentz. It's getting some help:
• The U.S. Attorney's Office in Arizona is going back through its active cases from the area where the killing occurred and interviewing suspects in hopes of unearthing useful information, said Dennis Burke, U.S. attorney in Arizona.
• Burke met with his counterpart in Mexico this week to set the groundwork for extradition if authorities find the shooter across the border.
• Immigration and Customs Enforcement has dedicated several agents full time to assist Cochise County, and has additional agents on standby if needed.
• Homeland Security has put up a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and federal prosecution of the shooter.
• The Arizona Cattlemen's Association is offering a $15,000 reward.
Brady McCombs
Contact reporter Brady McCombs at 573-4213 or bmccombs@azstarnet.com.
The Posse Commitatus Act, while advisory and customary, is not equivalent to the Constitutional guarantee of border security to the several States. Further, the protections offered by Posse Commitatus, supposedly precluding the use of military force within the US are at best, illusory. I point you to USC Title X, Section 333:
The President, by using the militia or the armed forces, or both, or by any other means, shall take such measures as he considers necessary to suppress, in a State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy, if it—
(1) so hinders the execution of the laws of that State, and of the United States within the State, that any part or class of its people is deprived of a right, privilege, immunity, or protection named in the Constitution and secured by law, and the constituted authorities of that State are unable, fail, or refuse to protect that right, privilege, or immunity, or to give that protection; or
(2) opposes or obstructs the execution of the laws of the United States or impedes the course of justice under those laws.
In any situation covered by clause (1), the State shall be considered to have denied the equal protection of the laws secured by the Constitution.
So you see, Congress gave the President the police power with enormous latitude well over 100 years ago, Constitutional or not.
soetoro has other pressing islamocommunist priorities. Ignoring this fits in well with those.
I expect that nothing will be done to protect the good people on the border.Oh sure,there will be some talk but in the end,expect inaction as usual.
God help us all.
Sounds like the Governor doesn’t want to do anything, just use this as a political issue.
“”If you send the National Guard, you’ve got to let them do their job,” said Hays. “If not, it’s like having nobody at all.”
At Obama’s inauguration, 10,000 National Guard troops were deputized by Washington, D.C., police so they could take law-enforcement action if necessary. “
So Obama gets 10,000 troops and US citizen land owners get ZIP!!!
Par for the course.
I see a potential middle ground here. The governor could provide some limited funds for border county Sheriffs to deputize “border posses”. The funds would be used to train these deputized citizens in the legal Rules of Engagement, and “other purposes”.
The citizens for deputization must provide their own horse and rifle, and other weapons and equipment. Their function is mostly reconnaissance for teams of other deputies in off road vehicles.
The “other purposes” include provisions, animal fodder, and a bounty for every detained individual, with a double bounty for “coyotes” (illegal alien guides), and a triple bounty for illegal drugs seized.
The areas patrolled by these deputies would include a “special enforcement zone”, inland some distance from the border, including both public and private land, marked “for authorized entry only, trespassers will be prosecuted.”
In all honesty, the governor isn't in a position to do much.
She has called on the feds to federalize the National Guard in order to patrol the border.
She has the power to do this herself, of course. Except Arizona doesn't have the funds to do it. After Janet Napolitano's administration, Arizona is dead broke and can't afford to mobilize the Guard.
Unfortunately, neither the GOP or Dems want to secure the border.....there is a lot of tough talk...but no action.
Then, you have the America-Haters like John McCain....now trying to look tough on the border....when he is a big reason why Mr. Krentz is dead....McCain’s Hispano-Racist, Anti-American, Liberal bedwetting pandering of Illegal Aliens
The border needs to be sealed, the illegals deported, and the drug cartels shot and killed. If the govt does not have the will to this...then allow the citizens to do so.....and give those people the “amnesty”
A good and very long article here.
Mexico and the Forever Drug War
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/04/08/opinion/main6377441_page3.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody
One line is most interesting: “This was too much even for Ciudad Juárez, where the murder rate has been reported at 165 deaths per 100,000 residents — nearly four times higher than in Baghdad”
TIme to bring back the Original Special Forces - Texas style
In 1874, the Texas legislature sought to restore order by forming two groups of Rangers: the Special Force of Rangers and the Frontier Battalion. Under Captain Leander H. McNelly, the Special Force of Rangers moved into the Nueces Strip (between Corpus Christi and the Rio Grande) to combat lawlessness in that region.
Meanwhile, the Frontier Battalion, a force of some 450 Rangers under Major John B. Jones, participated in over fifteen Indian battles, and effectively neutralized the once powerful Commanches and Kiowas. But perhaps more importantly, this group also “thinned out” more than 3,000 Texas desperados including bank robber Sam Bass and notorious gunfighter John Wesley Hardin.
Also, corruption in the Border Patrol and FedGov has to be addressed - it has been around far too long
Eisenhower was stuck will cleaning up the mess created by the open door polices 73rd and 82nd Congresses. As Eisenhower took office, illegal immigrants were now crossing at the rate of about 3 million per year. When Eisenhower assumed the Oval Office, illegal alien migration was one of his top priorities.
He attributed the lax attitude of Congress about illegal immigration with a relaxation of Congressional ethical standards. A Truman-initiated study on Mexican migratory labor in 1950 found that cotton growers in Texas paid migrant workers about half what a US citizen was paid to chop cotton. As Eisenhower met with current and retired border patrol agents he learned that the big ranchers and farmers who relied on the cheap migrant labor had friends “in high places” in government. Agents were subtlety warned not to arrest the workers employed by what turned out to be powerful campaign donors. When that didn’t work, they were very bluntly told to back off, or they were simply transferred where they would become someone else’s problem.
The two most influential Senators who blocked the efforts of the INS to do their job were then Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson [D-TX] and Sen. Pat McCarran [D-NV].
Not a whole lot different today - except the numbers - much, much more.
I expect in the not too distant future to see bodies strung up along the fence line. When that happens, it will be the fault of the US government.
Ping!
It figures that L.B.J. was a thug trouble maker.
They could care less if a few eggs get broken while they cook up their marxist omelet.
Our government is no longer our friend.
Ping!
bttt
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