Money stalls plan for Guard troops on border

[CommunityEditor]

SUNLAND PARK, N.M. — The U.S. military has no plans to send troops to the border with Mexico, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Friday.

Adm. Michael Mullen, who spoke to reporters after a brief tour of the border in and around El Paso, Texas, said his first trip to the border should not be taken as a sign of any intentions to send the military to the border as a bloody drug cartel war continues to plague Mexico.

“There are [no plans] that I am aware of or that I would talk about,” Mullen said. “I’m here to learn more about [the border], specifically because of my responsibilities, and we’ll continue to support just as we have in the past.”

Mullen said his briefings from commanders with the Army’s Joint Task Force North at nearby Fort Bliss and the U.S. Border Patrol were designed to ensure continued cooperation among authorities.

Governors and members of Congress are increasingly calling for troops to help defend against drug violence spilling into the U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said this week that the administration is considering those requests.

President Barack Obama met with Mexican President Felipe Calderon this week in Mexico City and pledged more cooperation between the two countries. Obama promised to crack down on drug consumption in the U.S. and weapons smuggling across the southern border.


Article: http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2009/04/ap_drugwar_border_troops_041709w/

[CommunityEditor]

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is developing plans to seek up to 1,500 National Guard volunteers to step up the military’s counter-drug efforts along the Mexican border, senior administration officials said Monday.

The plan is a stopgap measure being worked out between the Defense Department and the Homeland Security Department, and comes despite Pentagon concerns about committing more troops to the border — a move some officials worry will be seen as militarizing the region.

Senior administration officials said the Guard program will last no longer than a year and would build on an existing counter-drug operation. They said the program, which would largely be federally funded, would draw on National Guard volunteers from the four border states. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the details have not been finalized.

Officials said the program would mainly seek out guard members for surveillance, intelligence analysis and aviation support. Guard units would also supply ground troops who could assist at border crossings and with land and air transportation.

President Barack Obama earlier this spring promised his Mexican counterpart, Felipe Calderon, that the United States would help with the escalating drug war, which has killed as many as 11,000 people since December 2006.

Earlier this month, Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Janet Napolitano announced a 2009 counternarcotics strategy, saying the U.S. would devote more resources to fighting the Mexican drug cartels, including the cash and weapons that flow across the border from the U.S. into Mexico.

But officials say that Defense Secretary Robert Gates has expressed concern that tapping the military for border control posts is a slippery slope and must not be overused.

Paul Stockton, assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense, said Monday that options for the new program have been drafted, but the plan still must be approved by key cabinet members as well as the president.

“We have been working very closely to build a set of options that would have the Department of Defense in a very limited way, for a limited period of time, serve in direct support for CBP,” said Stockton, referring to Customs and Border Protection.

The administration does not want to announce or begin the effort until after the Mexican elections this week, officials said.

Rand Beers, under secretary for national protection at the Homeland Security Department, declined to say how long the program would last, only that it would not be lengthy.

Beers said the additional Guard members would stay as long as needed for the border patrol agents to be trained and given “some period of time” on the border to gain experience on the job.

The administration has proposed spending $250 million on the program, but the precise cost will not be known until the details are worked out, he said.

The White House came to the decision that it is simply not enough for the United States to provide funding in support of the Mexican government’s counter-drug efforts, said Beers.

The Guard’s volunteer mission, Beers and Stockton both stressed, would not involve law enforcement activities.

The current National Guard counter-drug operation along the border, which has been in effect for many years, involves about 575 Guard members, who applied for the job through their state program coordinator.

The additional volunteers, officials said, would largely be drawn from the more than 50,000 Army and Air National Guard members in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas. There are no plans to seek Guard members from other states, although that has not been ruled out.

There is already federal funding in place to hire more than 1,500 border patrol agents.

A previous program — Operation Jump Start — used National Guard troops to help bolster border patrols for three years. Over that time, the federal government added border patrol agents, but the escalating drug war has stretched those forces as they try to increase surveillance of possible cash and arms traffic.


Article: http://www.militarytimes.com/news/2009/06/ap_guard_border_mexico_062909/

[CommunityEditor]

WASHINGTON — A government plan to use National Guard troops to help stem Mexican drug violence along the southern border is stymied by disagreements over who will pay for the soldiers and how they would be used.

Ordered by President Barack Obama in June to help secure the border with Mexico, the Pentagon and the Homeland Security Department drafted a $225 million plan to deploy temporarily 1,500 Guard troops to supplement Border Patrol agents.

The two agencies are wrangling over how to structure the deployment, but the primary sticking point is the money, according to senior administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

The funding stalemate lingers even after Obama renewed his commitment to Mexican officials on Monday to reinforce the border and to help Mexico battle the drug cartels. Fierce battles between Mexican law enforcement and the cartels have left as many as 11,000 people dead and fueled concerns about violence spilling into the U.S.

“The United States,” Obama said during a news conference in Mexico on Monday, “will also meet its responsibilities by continuing our efforts to reduce the demand for drugs and continuing to strengthening the security of our shared border — not only to protect the American people, but to stem the illegal southbound flow of American guns and cash that helps fuel this extraordinary violence.”

Meanwhile, state leaders are getting antsy.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry is still waiting for a response to his request for 1,000 more troops, his spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger said Tuesday.

“For too long, the border has gone without the adequate resources to secure it,” Cesinger said. “It’s a federal responsibility but a Texas problem.”

White House spokesman Nick Shapiro cautioned that Obama has not made any decision yet on the issue. “The president is firmly committed to ensuring that our borders are secure and that we are doing all that we can to cut off the flow of drugs, illegal weapons and bulk cash in both directions,” he said.

Plan would include reimbursement
Early drafts of the Pentagon’s plan revealed Defense would seek reimbursement for its costs of the program, which is slated to last one year, giving the Border Patrol time to build up its force of agents.

The Homeland Security Department, which expects to get roughly $44 billion in its overall 2010 budget compared to the Pentagon’s $636 billion, is also reluctant to bear the costs of the proposed program.

Military officials have balked at having a highly visible uniformed presence at border crossings.

One administration official said an initial Pentagon draft was nixed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates because it suggested that Guard troops could be used to help screen commercial vehicles at the border.

Defense leaders have been insistent that the U.S. avoid any appearance of militarizing the border, and they are opposed to using the soldiers at border entry points to openly inspect vehicles.

Defense officials have been uneasy about the Guard plan from the onset, insisting that the effort be temporary and not tied to any existing program that could end up being extended or made permanent. Adding to those concerns is the fact that while the program would be federally funded, the Guard members would be under the control of the border states’ governors.

At the same time, Pentagon officials have grumbled that the latest demands come as the U.S. is still fighting two wars, including an escalation of fighting in Afghanistan, and the Guard units are still needed to take on some of the battlefield duties.

A new draft that drops those border inspections from the list of Guard missions was prepared, and one senior administration official said that Gates and DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano agreed on that move in a conversation last week.

Timeframe
One official said a resolution to the matter is still some weeks away. Other debates have involved where the soldiers would be stationed and what tasks they would perform.

“The two agencies are resolving a handful of issues that remain,” Paul Stockton, the Pentagon’s assistant secretary for homeland defense, told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “The Defense Department is working closely with DHS to make sure the president has viable options to consider prior to making his decision.”

Stockton, who last month traveled to El Paso, Texas, to review the border situation, declined to provide details of the negotiations, but said agencies are close to finalizing options to send to the president.

The two agencies apparently have agreed to include a provision that would allow armed Guard soldiers to conduct surveillance near the border. The soldiers would not perform law enforcement duties, so they would carry weapons solely for self-protection, officials said.

Other Guard missions could be used for intelligence analysis, monitoring of entry stations, helicopter transportation support and aviation surveillance — which would likely involved unmanned aircraft.

The White House order was sparked by a request last February from Perry, who asked Napolitano for 1,000 National Guard troops on the border. In March, Arizona Gov. Janice Brewer joined in, asking for 250 additional Guard troops above 150 already there. In both cases, the state officials wanted the soldiers to be mobilized by the federal government so that the states would not have to pay for them.

Officials argue that additional border patrol agents are needed so they can more diligently monitor the southbound traffic, as well as continue inspections of those heading northbound into the U.S. There are about 19,500 border patrol agents, with roughly 17,200 on the southern border.


Article: http://www.militarytimes.com/news/2009/08/ap_mexico_border_guard_081209w/

[CommunityEditor]

WASHINGTON — A proposed government plan to use National Guard troops to help stem Mexican drug violence along the southern border is stymied by disagreements over who will pay for the soldiers and how they would be used.

Ordered by President Barack Obama in June to help secure the border with Mexico, the Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security drafted a $225 million program to temporarily deploy 1,500 Guard troops to supplement U.S. Border Patrol agents.

The agencies are wrangling over how to structure the deployment, but the primary sticking point is the money, according to senior administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

The funding stalemate lingers even after Obama renewed his commitment to Mexican officials on Monday to reinforce the border and to help Mexico battle the drug cartels. Fierce battles between Mexican law enforcement and the cartels have left as many as 11,000 people dead and fueled concerns about violence spilling into the U.S.

“The United States,” Obama said during a news conference Monday in Mexico, “will also meet its responsibilities by continuing our efforts to reduce the demand for drugs and continuing to strengthening the security of our shared border — not only to protect the American people, but to stem the illegal southbound flow of American guns and cash that helps fuel this extraordinary violence.”

Meanwhile, state leaders are getting antsy.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry is still waiting for a response to his request for 1,000 more troops, his spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger said Tuesday.

“For too long the border has gone without the adequate resources to secure it,” Cesinger said. “It’s a federal responsibility but a Texas problem.”

Early drafts of the Pentagon’s plan revealed DoD would seek reimbursement for its costs of the program, which is slated to last one year, giving U.S. Border Patrol time to build up its force of agents.

The Department of Homeland Security, which expects to get roughly $44 billion in its overall 2010 budget compared to the Pentagon’s $636 billion, is also reluctant to bear the costs of the proposed program.

Military officials have also balked at having a highly visible uniformed presence at border crossings.

One administration official said an initial Pentagon draft was nixed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates because it suggested that Guard troops could be used to help screen commercial vehicles at the border.

Defense leaders have been insistent that the U.S. avoid any appearance of militarizing the border, and they are opposed to using the soldiers at border entry points to openly inspect vehicles.

Defense officials have been uneasy about the Guard plan from the onset, insisting that the effort be temporary and not tied to any existing program that could end up being extended or made permanent. Adding to those concerns is the fact that while the program would be federally funded, the Guard members would be under the control of the border states’ governors.

At the same time, Pentagon officials have grumbled that the latest demands come as the U.S. is still fighting two wars, including an escalation of fighting in Afghanistan, and the Guard units are still needed to take on some of the battlefield duties.

A new draft that drops those border inspections from the list of Guard missions was prepared, and one senior administration official said that Gates and DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano agreed on that move in a conversation last week.

One official said a resolution to the matter is still some weeks away. Other debates have involved where the soldiers would be stationed and what tasks they would perform.

“The two agencies are resolving a handful of issues that remain,” Paul Stockton, the Pentagon’s assistant secretary for homeland defense, told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “The Defense Department is working closely with DHS to make sure the president has viable options to consider prior to making his decision.”

Stockton, who last month traveled to El Paso, Texas, to review the border situation, declined to provide details of the negotiations, but said agencies are close to finalizing options to send to the president.

The two agencies have apparently agreed to include a provision that would allow armed Guard soldiers to conduct surveillance near the border. The soldiers would not perform law enforcement duties, so they would carry weapons solely for self-protection, officials said.

Other Guard missions could include intelligence analysis, monitoring of entry stations, helicopter transportation support and aviation surveillance — that would likely involved unmanned aircraft.

The White House order was sparked by a request last February from Perry, who asked Napolitano for 1,000 Guard troops on the border. In March, Arizona Gov. Janice Brewer joined in, asking for 250 additional Guard troops above 150 already there. In both cases, the state officials wanted the soldiers to be mobilized by the federal government so that the states would not have to pay for them.

Officials argue that additional border patrol agents are needed so they can more diligently monitor the southbound traffic, as well as continue inspections of those heading northbound into the U.S. There are currently about 19,500 border patrol agents, with roughly 17,200 on the southern border.


Article: http://www.militarytimes.com/news/2009/08/ap_guard_border_deployment_081209/