Political correctness, the National Guard, and the Mexican border


Sending troops, but making sure they can't help
I was hoping that something different would happen.

Ah well.

National Guard troops deployed along the U.S.-Mexico border as part of President Bush's plan to free U.S. Border Patrol agents have been assigned bodyguards -- some of the same agents the soldiers were sent to relieve.
 
Several veteran Border Patrol agents in Arizona told The Washington Times they were issued standing orders to be within five minutes of National Guard troops along the border and that Border Patrol units were pulled from other regions to protect the Guard units -- leaving their own areas short-handed.

The agents, who refer to the assignment as "the nanny patrol," said most of the Guard troops are not allowed to carry loaded weapons, despite a significant increase in border violence directed at Border Patrol agents and other law-enforcement personnel over the past year.

The National Border Patrol Council (NBPC), which represents all 10,000 of the agency's nonsupervisory agents, said the presence of more than 6,000 Guard troops on the border has allowed a few hundred agents to be reassigned from administrative to field duties, but that "about the same number are now assigned to guard the National Guard troops."

I've just spent the last half hour or so trying to confirm this story. It looks like it holds up. Officially the Border Patrol has no comment.

I still think it would be cheaper to hire more Border Patrol agents.

The troops are unarmed.

6000 troops frees up a few hundred agents.

How is this effective?


— NeoWayland

Posted: Thu - August 17, 2006 at 07:41 AM  Tag


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