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  1. #1
    Senior Member JohnB2012's Avatar
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    N.C. Guard Among First To Arrive At Mexico-U.S. Border

    http://www.wral.com/news/9591202/detail.html

    SAN LUIS, Ariz. -- The Border Patrol official gave the move-'em-out signal, and the first caravan of desert-tan Humvees and cargo trucks from the North Carolina National Guard rolled south toward the nation's border.

    The movement late Wednesday drew stares from onlookers and cast long shadows from the setting sun.

    This was the show of force President Bush wanted when he announced Operation Jump Start in May, the buildup of 2,000 National Guard troops on the U.S.-Mexico border to signal to potential illegal migrants: Don't do it.

    About 200 troops from North Carolina's 252nd Combined Arms Battalion are among the nation's first to set up observation points to stem the flow of illegal migration into the United States.

    "We're spotting illegal immigrants and reporting them. The customers, for us, are Border Patrol," said Lt. Col. Randy Powell, commander of the battalion, based in Fayetteville, N.C. "I think our legacy in Arizona is we develop something that's not been done before by the Guard."

    Though the battalion is armed and experienced as border enforcers themselves, having done similar work in Iraq, the soldiers here will be used solely as scouts. It is their job to spend endless hours near the line with Mexico, radioing reports of suspicious movement to the Border Patrol. It's up to the federal agency to catch illegal immigrants.

    "If we're doing our job right, hopefully we won't see anything," said Capt. Chris Rogers, 39, of Cary, N.C. "We're here to deter."

    This is why the troops are running out in caravans, hanging lights from their nighttime observation points and setting up along some of the sites most visible from Mexico.

    During a tour of the border with visiting Brig. Gen. Steve Hargis of the North Carolina National Guard, Assistant Chief Arthur Angulo of the Border Patrol's Yuma sector told Hargis that the troops frighten migrants.

    "They are afraid of the uniform, of the military uniform," said Angulo, who is overseeing Operation Jump Start for the sector.

    As the truck passed the border fence, a man in a backpack peered around it, less than a foot from the United States, waiting for his chance.

    The Border Patrol expects to have about 2,000 National Guard troops in place in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas by Aug. 1 before an eventual buildup to 6,000.

    Already, the Guard has helped free up 250 Border Patrol agents for field duty, Border Patrol Chief David Aguilar said this week in Washington. The Guard will stay two years as the federal agency hires new agents to replace them.

    THE MISSION

    For North Carolina's troops, the work in Arizona's Border Patrol Yuma sector replaces a two-week training session at Fort Bragg. This is more exciting, they said.

    "We're not down here trying to keep people from coming into the country," Sgt. Todd Smith of Durham said. "We just want them to do it the right way."

    Troops from North Carolina arrived Sunday but weren't working until Wednesday evening because of briefings, training and trying to figure out where to place soldiers. They stayed two nights in Tucson hotels for training before driving west to Yuma.

    To the troops, the land southwest of Yuma looks eerily familiar _ like Balad, Iraq, with its flat lands, groves of date trees and harsh wind.

    Wednesday evening, troops unfurled camouflage netting on a levee overlooking the border a few hundred yards away. The netting would be used as daytime shade during the blistering southern Arizona heat, which was topping 110 degrees daily.

    A Border Patrol agent briefed Capt. Chris Rogers: Watch the fence there, the agent said, pointing left to the tall, corrugated metal.

    The migrants duck in and dash to the right along the fields, or they'll scurry past into a nearby cluster of homes to hide themselves.

    "Anything here, that's what you're looking for," the agent said, sweeping his arm over the fields.

    It was dark, and Pfc. Jonathan Tart, of Erwin, N.C., and Pfc. Isaac Lake, of Fayetteville, N.C., sat cross-legged on the hood of a Humvee. They wore their Kevlar helmets, scanning the inky horizon through nighttime binoculars.

    "Do you see that?" Tart asked. He pointed out a pair of lights speeding through the field.

    Lake nodded. "I see it. What is that?"

    "It's a truck. It's moving fast as hell."

    It was the Border Patrol. No migrants, no emergency.

    Since May, apprehensions on the Mexican border have dropped nearly 45 percent compared with the previous two months, Aguilar, the Border Patrol chief, said in Washington.

    Some human rights organizations attribute the drop to the normal cycle that sees crossings drop in the hot summer, but federal officials say that doesn't account for the entire drop.

    In the Yuma sector, apprehensions are down 1 percent from this time last year, said spokesman Richard Hays. Until Bush's announcement, Hays said, apprehensions had been up.

    Inside the detention center this week, captured migrants sat on wooden benches in barren holding rooms. Two teenage girls sat quietly while a man slept nearby on the floor. A boy alone in a juvenile holding cell watched through the glass as a Border Patrol agent showed off paperwork to leaders of the North Carolina National Guard.

    Powell said the troops will work until Thursday and return to North Carolina by Aug. 5. He predicted that his group wouldn't let a single person across on their first shift.

    "I'd be surprised if anyone gets through tonight," Powell said.

    By dawn, the troops on the San Luis levee had seen little. A few jackrabbits. A person who stood on the edge but wandered back into Mexico. An endless stream of cars on a distant border road, making it tough to distinguish through the night-vision goggles.

    "Sometimes it takes a while to get sure of what you're looking at," Sgt. 1st Class Patrick Mohan said early Thursday morning, sipping water. "I think the majority of the stuff is just right on the border, kind of the gray area in between."

    ___

    Information from: The News & Observer, http://www.newsobserver.com

  2. #2
    Administrator ALIPAC's Avatar
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    added to the homepage for complete listing of the NC material

    http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=N ... e&sid=1392
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