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  1. #1
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    Texas Border deployment 'on track,' Guard says

    Border deployment 'on track,' Guard says

    Posted Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2010
    By Dave Montgomery
    dmontgomery@star-telegram.com

    AUSTIN -- About a third of the 1,200 National Guard troops that President Barack Obama ordered to the U.S.-Mexico border are now in place, a National Guard spokesman said Wednesday, while disputing reports that the deployment is behind schedule.

    "We're on schedule; we're on track," Jack Harrison, communications director for the National Guard Bureau, told reporters in a conference call. About 420 Guard personnel have been deployed among the four states bordering Mexico since the operation began in July, Harrison said.

    Army Col. Bill Meehan, public affairs director for Texas Military Forces, told the Star-Telegram that the deployment is also on schedule in Texas, although he declined to discuss specific numbers. Harrison also would not discuss the number of troops now deployed in each state.

    Numbers at issue

    Texas is slated to get 286 troops, a number that Gov. Rick Perry has blasted as woefully insufficient to help strengthen security along the state's 1,200-mile border with Mexico. Perry outlined his concerns in a four-page letter to Obama when the president arrived in Texas for a daylong visit Monday.

    Border security is on a list of contentious issues between Perry and Obama administration officials. In an Aug. 4 letter, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told Perry that her department has dedicated "historical levels of personnel technology and resources" to the Southwest border.

    The Border Patrol now has more than 20,000 agents, double the number from 2004, Napolitano said. A $600 million border security measure the House approved this week would authorize 1,500 more law enforcement agents, along with aerial surveillance drones and other technology.

    Obama announced the 1,200-troop deployment in May amid growing fears about illegal immigration and the threat of possible spillover violence from the Mexican drug wars.

    Harrison, based in Arlington, Va., said it will take 60 to 90 days to have all 1,200 troops in place. The troops are trained and then assigned to specific missions helping U.S. Customs and Border Protection, he said.

    Training comes first

    Harrison cited what he said were erroneous media reports that the deployment was behind schedule because all 1,200 troops had not been deployed by Aug. 1. "That was never the intent, never the plan," he said. "The intent was to do an incremental timetable over 60 to 90 days. You don't put people on a mission without proper training."

    Of the 420 now deployed, Harrison said, 340 are attached to the National Guard and 80 are Air National Guard. They come from Guard units in each state and will assist federal authorities by providing criminal analysis and helping detect illegal crossings.

    "We're seeing plenty of volunteers," Harrison said. "We're hopeful that will be the way we fill the qualifications in each state."

    The $135 million for the yearlong deployment will be paid by the federal government, split evenly between the Homeland Security and Defense departments. The full deployment will likely be in place by late October and will end in July.

    Meehan said the deployment in Texas has been "on schedule from the very beginning." Troops undergo a two- to three-week training program at Camp Swift in Bastrop and then are assigned to their missions along the border.

    "Every week we continue to build strength," Meehan said.

    Dave Montgomery is the Star-Telegram's Austin bureau chief. 512-476-4294

    http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/08/11 ... z0x1nDhAUT
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    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    RELATED

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    New Mexico Troops training for border duty

    http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-209800.html
    NO AMNESTY

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