Thread: NM-National Guard asking for funds to patrol border

Sunday, July 26, 2009



Posted at: 07/24/2009 10:02 PM
Updated at: 07/24/2009 10:45 PM
By: Antoinette Antonio


National Guard asking for funds to patrol border


National Guard troops watch the border day and nightA request for more money for National Guard troops to keep drugs and drug violence out of the U.S.
All four border governors, including Governor Richardson, are making the request to the federal government.

The National Guard's counter-drug program has been around for two decades and now the Guard says it needs that extra money.

Armed with night vision, under the cover of darkness, the New Mexico National Guard patrols the U.S.-Mexico border.

For the past 19 years, the Guard has been working to keep drug and human smugglers out of the state, night and day, watching over 28 miles of border.

It's called the counter-drug program, and we headed down to the border in a Black Hawk with the National Guard to get an inside look.

Colonel Richard Clark, the counter-drug coordinator, has been part of the operation since it began.

"Technology has gotten better." Col. Clark said. "We've gotten a lot of new equipment and new technology, we're able to do more. The only bad thing about it is that funding throughout the years, it's started steadily declining."

As funding declines, so does the National Guard's manpower. Smugglers, meanwhile, get more advanced—stepping up tactics and technology.

On the ground in Las Cruces, we met Guardsmen working the counter-drug program.

Fearing death threats and retaliation from druglords, their identities are concealed.

Guardsmen show us the tools used to take drug smuggling cars apart, finding drugs in hidden compartments, inside hollowed tires, and even in the car's battery.

Then there's the task of putting the car back together.

"If you're working on the highway somewhere in the hours of darkness, trying to keep control of all the parts and put them back in place so the vehicle is and looks the same as it was when we started, it's really, really hard," one soldier said.

When it comes to tracking down the smugglers, a remote-controlled airplane is the latest tool.

Still in the training phase, the Guard has high hopes for the Unmanned Areal Vehicle.

The National Guard can't disclose how far or how high they can fly, but the UAV will really help when it comes to surveying the border.

The National Guard's main role on the drug front: supporting other law enforcement agencies like Border Patrol.

Guardsmen monitor 14 cameras from Border Patrol offices in Deming, freeing up agents to get out in the field.

Back up in the air, in an OH-58 helicopter, the Guard works hand-in-hand with the Border Patrol on the ground, tracking smugglers who reportedly crossed the border the night before.

The helicopters normally patrol at night, equipped with infrared technology.

On the day we went along with Guardsmen, no smugglers were caught, but if they had, Border Patrol would make the arrest. But it's getting harder and harder for the National Guard to be in that support role, they say, with limited funding.

In the 90s, there was enough money for 250 Guardsmen to work counter-drug, but now, less than 100 troops are fighting the drug war. The counter-drug program operates on a $5 million budget.

The National Guard says another $5 million would help deploy another 100 troops to the border.



http://www.kob.com/article/stories/S104 ... ml?cat=504

What we already have on the border. But more mind boggling is that its still not enough...