This tells the story. The Soldiers focus on support for the arresting officers. This includes surveillance, communication and equipment. As any one on point needs a strong tail, this is then provided at a high level of efficiency.
It is also clear that the program is working well enough to make running the border at least difficult. At this point it has to be good enough.
An effectibve fence is our next step.
.
National Guard Making Impact on Southwest Border
May 30, 2018 10:52 am
Last Updated: May 30, 2018 12:30 pm
https://www.theepochtimes.com/national-guard-making-impact-on-southwest-border_2541984.html?
National Guardsman Corporal Scott Engels
outside the surveillance center in the Border Patrol station in Nogales,
Ariz., on May 23, 2018. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)
NOGALES, Arizona—National Guardsman
Cpl. Scott Engels volunteered to deploy to the border to assist Border
Patrol with surveillance. He had previously served in the military on
active duty as an artillery radar operator for four years.
“I just want to serve my country and
make sure everybody is as protected as they need to be,” Engles said
outside the surveillance room in the Nogales Border Patrol station in
Arizona on May 23.
He said it feels “fantastic” to facilitate the apprehension of an illegal alien or drug smuggler from his surveillance work.
Engles said he logs in to the remote
video camera systems and integrated fixed towers that are scattered
along the border. He then scans for illegal aliens or drug activity, and
the computer will also start flashing an alert if it detects anything.
If he sees anything, he radios Border Patrol agents in the area to
investigate.
Outside of this deployment, Engels is
a transportation specialist for the National Guard and is also
completing a criminal justice degree in Phoenix.
Operation Guardian Support
The National Guard has been assisting
the Border Patrol on the U.S.–Mexico border operations since early
April and has contributed to more than 4,500 arrests, according to
Customs and Border Protection numbers. Around 6,500 pounds of illicit
drugs have been seized during the same period.
More than 200 National Guardsmen have
been deployed to the Tucson Sector, in which Nogales sits, and most of
them are in the Nogales area.
Arizona has provision for 600
National Guardsmen, which has not yet been reached, and it may look at
recruiting from other states.
The National Guard funding for the
current “Operation Guardian Support” is through Sept. 30, 2018. It has
provision for up to 4,000 soldiers.
Illegal crossings spiked in March,
reaching 50,296 apprehensions—up 37 percent from February and more than
triple from the same period last year.
“Until we can have a wall and proper
security, we’re going to be guarding our border with the military.
That’s a big step,” Trump said on April 3.
“The security of the United States is imperiled by a drastic surge of illegal activity on the southern border,” Trump said in a memorandum to the secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security and the attorney general on April 4.
“We’ll probably keep them, or a large portion of them, until such time as we get the wall,” he said on April 5.
Hooves on the Ground
This is the third deployment to the
border for Sgt. 1st Class Thomas Evitts. He assisted with budget work in
Phoenix during “Operation Jump Start” in 2006 under former President
George W. Bush, in which 6,000 troops were deployed in California,
Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.
“It is a different mission this
time,” Evitts said. “Last time, it was more eyes on the border, whereas
this mission is more getting the border agents on the border. So we’re
more of a support role than we were in the past.”
His arrival to take care of the herd
for the horse patrol unit immediately freed up a Border Patrol agent to
the field. He helps feed, water, and tack up the horses for the unit.
“It’s definitely doing what the
mission statement is [and] getting agents back on the border,” he said.
“It’s definitely made a huge impact for them.
“I deal with the agents daily,
helping them tack up their horses and managing the herd. It really does
relieve them. They’re able to keep their teams in the field and be
productive.”
The horses are wild mustangs from the
Bureau of Land Management, which captures them and sends them to local
prisons to get broken in by the prisoners before Border Patrol gets
them. Mustangs are uniquely suited to border work because they are
hyper-vigilant and agile, especially in the dark.
Evitts, who works for Sysco Foods,
started with the National Guard in 2001 and said working with the horses
is a unique opportunity.
“This was a need and I was available, so I decided to go ahead and do it. It’s a great job.”
“If you were to bring active-duty guys here, kids who enter military
at 18 and learn nothing but that job, that’s quite a contrast,” he said.
“Whereas a guardsman, when they come in and enter, they bring in a lot
of their civilian skill sets with them and a lot of the things they
learned when they grow up in this dual world of military and civilian.
So that’s what also makes us a unique fit.”
National Guard members in the Nogales area are also assisting on the
firearms range and in the vehicle maintenance garage. Further west, in
Yuma, they are also helping clear brush from beside the Colorado River,
which separates Arizona from Mexico.
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