Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) to send up to 1,000 Nat'l Guardsmen to border

If Obama won't do it, governors along the southern border will have to.

 

I actually beat him by one minute. :laugh:

 

Mods ... take down or merge w/carpro's thread, please.

 

Two years ago, we needed 6,000 more Border Patrol officers to control the border. I'm sure by now we need a couple thousand more. Still, 1,000 armed and armored National Guardsmen are going to have their effect on illegals crossing the river. Border Patrolmen are dressed like the illegals' home town police officers. Heavily armed soldiers could give them a second thought. Not likely all of them, but some of them. It'll be interesting to see what the Guardsmen's orders are from the Texas commandant.

 

Not quite. Current levels are 21,000 officers, but that includes command staff and detention center support personnel. There are only 6,000 officers actually on patrol. The additional officers would have brought the total to 38,400, and the Border Patrol agents themselves have serious doubts about those additions. As the Washington Times reported last year, there aren't enough facilities, there isn't a big enough vehicle or fuel budget, there aren't even enough uniforms for the current level of 21,000 agents. And the Obama administration is constantly harping at Border Patrol commanders about how much is paid out in overtime. President Bush warned as he left office that the Border Patrol needed a much larger budget, not to hire patrolmen, but to make sure they had the equipment they needed and provided the necessary training. Since then, under Obama, the BP has become more concerned about quantity -- as reflected in last year's bill -- vs. quality of enforcement and education of the officers providing it.

Numbers don't mean better enforcement. In this case, it would have meant bigger screw ups by people who weren't qualified for what they were doing and weren't equipped to do it better.