Jeff Sessions Amendment Approved by Senate
Immigration Chronicles
Blogging the issue with the Chronicle staff
October 04, 2007
Senate votes to keep troops at border longer
The National Guard troops stationed at the Southwest border would stay for a bit longer under the defense spending bill approved last night by the Senate.
President Bush dispatched 6,000 National Guard members last year to assist the Border Patrol as it tries to gain operational control of the border. Under the plan, known as Operation Jump Start, the National Guard presence was designed to provide a quick boost while the Border Patrol hired and trained several thousand new agents.
About 3,000 National Guardsmen are still on the border, with Operation Jump Start scheduled to end next July.
Under a measure offered by Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., that was approved by the Senate last night, the Guard presence would be extended another three months to September 2008. The amendment also seeks to prod the Bush administration to beef the Guard presence back up to 6,000 troops, reserving $794 million of the $459 billion defense budget for a longer and more robust border deployment.
On the Senate floor, Sessions complained that the administration was prematurely reducing the Guard presence. Noting that illegal crossings are down about 25 percent since the Guard's arrival, Sessions said it would be unwise for the administration to scale back Operation Jump Start. Says Sessions:
This program is a proven success and it would be unthinkable to back away so soon from this critical part of our border enforcement strategy.
According to Sessions' office, a review of Operation Jump Start found that National Guard troops had aided in the apprehension of nearly 85,000 illegal immigrants and seized 4,783 pounds of cocaine. Marijuana interdictions are also up 22 percent, the report found.
The Guard's border duty hasn't come without criticism. Some skeptics expressed concern that the troop deployment augured the militarization of the border. And others say the state Guard units already are stretched by overseas deployments and that the border duty could jeopardize the ability to respond to natural disasters or other crises.
The House already has passed its own version of the defense budget, which doesn't include the Sessions amendment -- or $3 billion in border security funds the Senate tacked onto the bill yesterday. So, it remains to be seen as House and Senate negotiators work out a final compromise package whether any of the extra border security funds will stick. Stay tuned to this space.
Posted by Michelle Mittelstadt at October 4, 2007 11:17 AM
http://blogs.chron.com/immigration/arch ... _to_1.html
