Thread: Arizona Nat Guard says it has not received word from feds

Arizona National Guard says it has not received word from the feds
Posted: May 28, 2010 8:21 PM CDT
Updated: May 28, 2010 8:21 PM CDT

Reported By: Steve Nunez

DOUGLAS, AZ (KGUN - TV) - This week, President Obama promised to send 1,200 National Guard troops to the border and everyone's been talking about it ever since. But no one's told the Arizona National Guard yet.

The Arizona National Guard tells Nine On Your Side it does not have answers for the following: its mission, the number of soldiers it'll need to call up, and an official date on when soldiers will set boots on ground.

Here's what we do know. The Arizona National Guard says its soldiers are trained to carry out any mission. We also know when they do show up not all border residents will be happy to see them.

Today, Douglas resident Marcos Lucero is 70 years old. We first met Lucero 11 years ago. Back then here's how Lucero described the border situation, "You'll see plenty of people running through here. You'll see women and children. You'll see old people you'll see young gang members."

Lucero was right. Our camera captured group after group of illegals running past the front line of defense and right past his yard. We sat down with Lucero again and asked him if anything has changed. Lucero said, "You won't see the traffic we used to have here."

But Lucero says you will see new evidence smugglers have changed their tactics from people to drugs. Lucero said, "We had drugs thrown out in the drive way. We had drugs laying in the ditch." Nine On Your Side's Steve Nunez asked: "Are you talking about marijuana?" Lucero responded, "Marijuana and cocaine."

Something new in Douglas also caught our attention. U.S. Customs is building a second line of defense along the city. And even though the Border Patrol maintains a constant presence, Lucero says bringing in soldiers will not make a difference against the rise in drugs coming across.

Nunez asked: "With that happening why are you against soldiers along the border?" Lucero said, "Well because they've done it before. You know if you're going to send a trained person that's trained to kill give them ammo to kill them.."

Nunez then asked: "What do you want to see?" Lucero said,"Well we've got to get some hot politician here rile him up and have him hit the trail with our message."

Nunez asked: "So if I come back 12 years from now what will I see?" Lucero responded, "The same thing."

Lucero says deploying soldiers along the border will not make a difference if they carry out the same mission as they did when President Bush called up 6,000 troops in 2006. The Arizona National Guard says 2,400 of those soldiers were placed along the Arizona border.

Their mission included road and fence repair, mechanic work and administrative work. The National Guard says these duties allowed border agents to spend more time in the field patrolling along the border.

Once called up, the National Guard says it could take several weeks for soldiers to become fully embedded to work with the Border Patrol.


http://www.kgun9.com/Global/story.asp?s=12563767

Sadly he is correct. The National Guard will have their hands tied and not be allowed to do any enforcement. If they find some illegal aliens or drug runners they will not be allowed to apprehend but instead be ordered to stand down and wait on Border Patrol to arrive and attempt to locate and capture.

The word will get back real quickly to Mexico that they are scarecrows and will actually use that to their advantage by making their illegal runs where they know the military is and the Border Patrol isn't.