Thread: Nevada troops enjoy mission along border

Nevada troops enjoy mission along border
Anjeanette Damon (ADAMON@RGJ.COM)
RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
August 26, 2007

In the dusty border town of Tecate, Calif., Humphries Road turns from a paved highway to dirt just past its intersection with Thing Road.

A couple of years ago, Humphries Road was a rutted, narrow pathway that attempted to traverse the mountainous terrain along the Mexican border. Prone to washouts from desert thunderstorms, the road made border enforcement difficult.

Today, Humphries Road is drivable. Much of it is lined with concrete culverts to divert storm water. And it allows easy access to the reinforced fencing that's being installed to separate the shanties of Tecate, Mexico, from the desert of California.

The improvements came with the help of 6,000 National Guard troops from Nevada and other states, who were sent to the border to provide backup for the overwhelmed U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency.

Engineers with the Guard design and build roads and drainage systems. Pilots drop border patrol officers in remote terrain for enforcement operations. Others conduct counter-drug operations, build fences and provide medical care and translation services.

The three-year mission, called Operation Jumpstart, is scheduled to come to a close within the next year. The drawdown of troops already has begun, sparking heated pleas from border-state governors to continue the mission.

In the wake of Congress's failure to agree on a comprehensive immigration reform bill, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson say the Guard troops are needed to stop the smuggling of humans and drugs over the border.

After a trip to the border to see the operation earlier this month, Gov. Jim Gibbons also called for continuing the program.

And a new poll found the mission is popular with Nevadans. Of 600 likely voters surveyed statewide, 67 percent said they support the use of the Nevada National Guard to assist in border protection.

But others, including U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., say the National Guard is stretched to capacity with combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, making it difficult to respond to in-state disasters and emergencies.

They argue that border protection shouldn't become a permanent part of the Guard's mission.

"The use of the Guard on the border is meant to be temporary," said Jon Summers, Reid's spokesman. "It's not in the best interests of the Guard or the country to make patrolling the border part of the Guard's job description. They serve as the state's first line of defense in the event of a disaster."

Since the mission's inception in May 2006, Nevada has sent 432 Army and Air Guard members to outposts along the border. Today, 210 members are working in the desert as part of their annual training requirements.

It's hot, demanding work. But members interviewed during a recent trip to Tecate said the training is some of the most valuable and fulfilling they've received.

"To do a real-world mission is really exciting," said 1st Lt. Brian Hunsaker, a high school chemistry teacher from Las Vegas. "In most of our training we're playing an imaginary bad guy. That gets old. The stuff we build here is going to be here 20, 30, 80 years down the road."

Because Operation Jumpstart is designed around the Guard's normal training schedule, it typically doesn't require extended deployments similar to those in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Hunsaker said it's a popular assignment, not only because of the job satisfaction.

"This morning, we got to run P.T. right on the beach," he said of his morning workout on a San Diego beach.

The training Guard members receive on the border is critical in keeping up the skills they need to respond to emergencies in the state, as well.

The Guard has made serious headway in its mission to allow U.S. Customs and Border Protection to regain enough strength to enforce the border.

With the help of $3 billion in emergency funding approved by Congress last July, the agency has hired more officers. National Guard troops also have gotten the agency's vehicles up and running and installed vehicle barriers and fencing along the border to make the agency's job easier.

"We've helped put a lot of badges back to the border," said Col. Nate Reddicks, one of the commanders of Operations Jumpstart. "Basically, the border patrol agent doesn't have to be a mechanic, doesn't have to fix the air conditioners. He can go be law enforcement."

With that agency back in shape, some argue that the Guard should return to its traditional missions of in-state emergency response and assisting the U.S. military in combat deployments abroad.

"It doesn't seem to me like a fit for the Guard," said Ret. Maj. Gen. Giles Vanderhoof, Nevada's past adjutant general in command of the Guard. "They keep calling up the Guard to go to the borders and it's just a patch fix. I don't know how long it could keep going that way.

"This country really needs to figure out what we are going to do with the borders and do it."

Governors across the country are contending with over-stretched Guards.

Operation Jumpstart "is just another illustration of how stretched the Guard is in many states," said Brian Namey, spokesman for the Democratic Governor's Association. "The governors' emergency response plans are contingent upon their ability to have National Guard troops and equipment at their disposal."

Chris Schrimpf, spokesman for the Republican Governor's Association, said his governors also want to ensure federal funds will continue to support the effort.

"When their partners in Congress are unable to do everything possible to secure the border, some governors understand that their National Guard troops have to step up," he said. "They only ask that the troops receive the support they need from the federal government."

U.S. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., who authored the amendment passed by the Senate to allow the Guard to be deployed to the border, wants to see the mission extended.

"When it started, it was temporary, but it is still needed" said Ensign's spokesman Trey Mazzola. "Securing the border is a step toward the reform we need."

Richardson, who is a Democratic presidential candidate as well as being a border-state governor, said he wants the mission extended, also.

"But only as part of an overall immigration reform that includes an increased number of border patrol agents, a crackdown on people who knowingly hire illegal workers, more negotiations and diplomacy regarding Mexico and an earned legalization program," said his Nevada spokesman Josh McNeil.

http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artic ... 60341/1007

"and an earned legalization program"

There's always a catch- amnesty.