Thoughts on Success or failure of Military Use Along Southwestern US Border

[ckschill]

There has not been a lot of discussion on this in the news since the additional National Guard troops were deployed there in the last 30 days. Do you feel the support to law enforcement agencies that the National Guard provides is increasing the amount of arrests of illegal immigrant and narco-terrorist crossing the border into the United States?
There are less than 50 legal crossing points along the Southwestern border, and miles of remote areas that provides passages for these illegals crossing into the United States. If the military were to be placed into outpost along these remote stretches, still supporting law enforcement agencies, with the authorities to arrest observed illegals I believe that we would see noticeable changes.

[motorfirebox]

Well, despite the violence in Mexico proper, it seems to me what's mainly needed is bodies on the border--bodies to search for tunnels and other forms of ingress. Sending in NG units accomplishes that, but the NG is also a military force. That sets a certain tone that I'm not sure is really helpful. The worry is that it could end up actually drawing our military into the conflict. That would be... bad.

[bourbon]

There has not been a lot of discussion on this in the news since the additional National Guard troops were deployed there in the last 30 days. Do you feel the support to law enforcement agencies that the National Guard provides is increasing the amount of arrests of illegal immigrant and narco-terrorist crossing the border into the United States?
Maybe the National Guard helps law enforcement do it jobs a little better - I don’t know; but a bum economy is what is driving the decrease in illegal borders crossers. As a result, arrests by the Border Patrol have gone down for five years in a row, CBP arrests were down 17% in 2010 (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39729811/).

Crossings by “narco-terrorists” may go down with help from the National Guard - I don’t know; but the Guard’s deployment will cause little effect on the supply of narcotics to the US. Dispatching some SOF types to help the Mexican government may stop some of the bleeding from the cartel wars; but again, little impact on the supply of narcotics to the US.


There are less than 50 legal crossing points along the Southwestern border, and miles of remote areas that provides passages for these illegals crossing into the United States. If the military were to be placed into outpost along these remote stretches, still supporting law enforcement agencies, with the authorities to arrest observed illegals I believe that we would see noticeable changes.
There is nearly 2,000 miles of US-Mexico border, around 20,000 Border Patrol agents, and National Guard deployments on the border in recent years have ranged between 1000 – 6000. Work with these numbers and try to figure out how to make a noticeable change in border security.