Guard Troops Leaving the Border

http://www.abqjournal.com/abqnews/index ... 0&Itemid=2
Written by Bruce Daniels - ABQnewsSeeker
Monday, 17 September 2007

Number expected to drop to 300 in two weeks; congressional delegation concerned.

The number of National Guard troops stationed along New Mexico's border with Mexico as part of the 15-month-old Operation Jump Start is expected to drop to 300 as of Sept. 30, the Las Cruces Sun-News reported on Sunday.

That's down from about 1,000 troops along the border a little more than three months ago in New Mexico's portion of the operation that began in June 2006 to place 6,000 troops all along the U.S. border with Mexico to support beleaguered Border Patrol agents, the Sun-News said.

Although President George W. Bush and the Department of Homeland Security had envisioned a drawdown of National Guard troops after the first year of Operation Jump Start, members of New Mexico's congressional delegation are expressing their concern about the downsizing and its potential effects, the Sun-News reported.

"I am concerned that if we prematurely reduce the number of Guard personnel it will be difficult to maintain recent achievement," Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., said in a July 16 letter to the president. "I do not believe that there are enough Border Patrol agents on the ground in New Mexico yet to justify a reduction of National Guard personnel by over 50 percent."

Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., also joined in July with Arizona Republican Sen. Jon Kyl and California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein in urging the president to keep the Guard's border operation going, the Sun-News said.

"I remain concerned about the plan to draw down Operation Jump Start," Domenici wrote the president. "As I understand it, both the Border Patrol and the participating guardsmen are benefiting from this program and I would like to see it continued."

Operation Jump Start is supposed to end next June, but Domenici and Kyl are trying to revive an amendment to the 2008 Defense Authorization Bill that would provide $400 million to keep the operation going, the paper reported.

Meanwhile, Customs and Border Patrol officials say their agency is ready to take up the duties National Guard troops have been handling for the past 15 months, according to another article in Sunday's Sun-News.

"We are ready," CBP spokesman Lloyd Easterling told the paper. "We have met our goals of hiring and training an additional 14,400 agents nationwide, and by the time Operation Jump Start ends next year we should be at the 18,000 agents that has been our goal all along."

And Doug Mosier, spokesman for the Border Patrol's El Paso sector -- which includes all of New Mexico and parts of West Texas -- said the number of agents assigned to the area has increased to about 2,200, the Sun-News said.

Deming Mayor Andres Silva told the Sun-News that the Guard presence has had a positive economic impact on his city, which has been the National Guard's forward operating base for about a year.

"I've already started lobbying Bingman, Domenici and (U.S. Rep. Steve) Pearce," Silva told the paper. "Without a doubt, I'd hate to see them go. There's so much good, in so many ways, that the National Guard has had a positive impact on Deming and the region. I'd like to see them stay around."