Thread: All quiet on the Mexican front

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All quiet on the Mexican front
By Brian Bowling
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, January 25, 2007

YUMA, Ariz. - The Pennsylvania troops patrolling the U.S.-Mexican border have changed considerably since the Philadelphia-based 1st Squadron of the 104th Cavalry chased Pancho Villa in 1916.


Humvees have replaced horses. Kevlar helmets have replaced felt campaign hats. Blackhawk helicopters ... well, they're just new.


The mission also is new. Instead of chasing and capturing, the Pennsylvania National Guard is here to look and listen.


"It's not really the kind of tactical or combat mission that we're attracted to," said Staff Sgt. Aaron Kime, 34, of Coraopolis. "It's not even a policing force. We're just here to observe and report."


Ron Colburn, chief of the U.S. Border Patrol's Yuma section, said the thin camouflage line created by the Guard's presence between the U.S.-Mexico border and this desert town reduced illegal border crossings by 60 percent in that section over the past six months.


In May, President Bush authorized the deployment of up to 6,000 National Guard troops along the border, citing an "urgent" need to stem the flow of millions of illegal immigrants into the United States. The number of troops is scheduled to drop to 3,000 in June.

The two-year mission is called "Operation Jump Start" because the Guard is filling in for the Border Patrol while it hires 6,000 agents to take over the watch.

During January and February, 108 Pennsylvania soldiers and airmen are manning 11 observation points along the Salinity Canal, one of the main obstacles border runners face in trying to reach Yuma.


Across the border, the people-smugglers known as "coyotes," the drug runners and the thousands of people just wanting a taste of the American dream are adapting to the Guard's presence.


Standing on the road above the canal, Kime points to the Colorado River and describes how people will swim the river naked, with their clothes in a plastic bag, and then spend hours in the brush watching for an opportunity to slip away undetected.


The Border Patrol has the guardsmen on the lookout for a car that's been modified by Mexicans so that it can speed under a gate that blocks a wide dirt road.

The Guard uses infrared and night vision optics to augment the Border Patrol's sensors and remote-controlled cameras. Rumors have drug smugglers and coyotes hiring ex-military members with their own electronics to scout the Guard's positions.


Guard members who were here in October describe mass rushes in which a dozen or more people would simply swarm through an observation point in the hope that only a few of them would be caught in the confusion.


The Guard members don't have the authority to detain people, so if the illegals reach a hiding place before the border agents arrive, they have a good chance of making it to Yuma.


The Border Patrol and Guard undercut that strategy by improving the roads the agents use to respond to breakthroughs. Brigadier Gen. Ulay Littleton, of the Arizona National Guard, said the Guard also put up barriers to slow down people trying to run across the border.


The border doesn't have to be impenetrable; it just has to be hard to cross, he said.


"It's about speed. It's about how fast they can get across," Littleton said.

Sgt. Randy Slaughter, 35, of Carmichaels, Greene County, said the 39-day border tour is restful compared to the year he spent in Iraq with Task Force Dragoon.

"Nice landscape, nice scenery, quiet for the most part," he said. "It's almost kind of like a mini-vacation if you look at it in the right frame of mind, stay positive."

This is the second 39-day border tour for Spc. Mark Kuhns, 20, of Latrobe, Westmoreland County. Kuhns said he volunteered again because he likes the mission and likes getting away from the Pennsylvania snow.

"We're helping out, and it's not a bad gig," he said.

Overall apprehensions of illegal immigrants along the U.S.-Mexico border dropped by 26 percent between October and December, the first full quarter the Guard has been on the border in strength. Apprehensions in the Yuma and the Del Rio, Texas, sectors dropped 63 percent.

During that quarter, Border Patrol agents made 152,811 apprehensions.

Colburn said sensor hits, footprints in the sand and other evidence of illegal crossings have shown a similar decline, which leads the Border Patrol to believe that crossing attempts have dropped by a similar percentage.

While the Border Patrol's traditional mission has been preventing aliens from entering illegally and smugglers from bringing contraband into the United States, recent events have added detecting terrorists and their weapons and preventing their entry.

Kime, the staff sergeant from Coraopolis, finds his assignment a fulfilling one.

"I wish we had done this a long time ago," he said. "It really helps out with the immigration problem."


Brian Bowling can be reached at bbowling@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7910.




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I think they better send someone to watch the bus loads on I -35 heading north