LAREDO, Texas (AP) -- A dispute between the Army and the National Guard is jeopardizing the security role the Guard has played along the U.S.-Mexico border since 2006, a newspaper reported Sunday.
The problems arise as the National Guard becomes more proficient at pinpointing illegal crossings along the border and as agents struggle with an influx of immigrants -- especially unaccompanied minors -- fleeing poverty and gang violence in Central America.
The National Guard began operating along the border in 2006 when then-President George W. Bush ordered 6,000 troops to the area. Since then, the troops' mission has evolved, and today about 300 Guard soldiers work along the border. Ground patrols have largely been replaced by nighttime helicopter missions, according to the Austin American-Statesman (http://bit.ly/1q0XfL9 ).
"Make this a more long-term program, a more planned, budgeted program," Maj. Gen. William "Len" Smith of the Texas National Guard said.
The current dispute comes from the Army facing budget cuts that could strip it of a fleet of Kiowa helicopters. The Army wants to replace the Kiowas with about 100 Lakota helicopters. Those aircraft could come from the National Guard, leaving that unit with little air capacity of its own.
If the National Guard loses 100 of its helicopters, Smith told the newspaper "we'd have to commit almost all the rest of our (14) Lakotas to that mission, or stop it, neither one being preferable."
The Regimes war on the Lone Star State. |