May 25, 2010
Giffords: Feds plan to deploy troops to U.S.-Mexico border
by Brady McCombs
Tuesday, May 25, 2010 11:33 am
The White House plans to send as many as 1,200 National Guard to the U.S.-Mexico border.
A press release from the office of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., says that President Obama will authorize the deployment of up to 1,200 National Guard troops to the southwest border, and request that $500 million be included in supplemental spending legislation for enhanced border protection and law enforcement activities.
Giffords and other politicians, including Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., have been calling for troops to the border since Douglas-area rancher Robert Krentz was found dead on his ranch on March 27. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer also had requested troops deployed but didn’t want to use state funds to pay for them.
It’s unknown who killed Krentz but there is speculation that it was a drug smuggling scout who fled into Mexico, based on information released by Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever.
It’s unclear what the Guard’s role will be.
In the Operation Jump Start border mission that ran from 2006 to 2008 across the U.S.-Mexico border, the National Guard helped the Border Patrol by building roads and fences, operating radios and sitting in observatory posts near the border to report activity. Guardsmen were not allowed to apprehend or engage.
