 |
| National Guard
working on barrier in Arizona. On August 24, ABP
could find no evidence of the Guard on the border in California.
ABP plans to return to California this week. |
|
San Francisco Chronicle
National
Guard at the border
...None of the 1,200
National Guard troops stationed on the border is patrolling treacherous
mountain terrain, or helping capture coyotes, drug smugglers
or illegal migrant workers. The Guard is armed with hard hats,
binoculars and sharpened pencils -- but no weapons and no enforcement
powers -- and it's unclear whether the mission, costing in excess
of $750 million overall, and $27 million so far in California,
has made the border any less porous.
Some Border Patrol personnel, whom the
Guard was supposed to assist, are less than impressed. "In
reality, it is accomplishing very little," said Rich Pierce,
executive vice president of the National Border Patrol Council. |
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