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National Guard to help at border
Show of force called 'visible deterrent'

By Jeanette Steele, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

Tuesday, July 20, 2010 at 9:29 p.m.

Dressed in camouflage and carrying sidearms, about 250 California National Guard personnel will provide a show of force to prospective drug runners and illegal migrants when the troops deploy to San Diego and Imperial counties, starting in mid-August.

As part of a get-tough-at-the-border move by the Obama administration, the Guard will be activated for a year to assist the U.S. Border Patrol and will be stationed around the region, from Camp Pendleton to the Tijuana border to the Imperial Valley.

“This is meant to be a visible deterrent,” spokeswoman Maj. Kimberly Holman said Tuesday.

The White House first announced in May that 1,200 troops would be sent to Southwest states to crack down on smuggling and drug cartel violence.

Critics have called it political posturing by President Barack Obama in the run-up to November congressional elections and after Arizonans showed frustration with federal policy by empowering local police to check immigration status.

About twice as many Guard personnel were sent to San Diego County from 2006 to 2008 for Operation Jumpstart.

Then, as is envisioned now, Guard troops did surveillance work that freed up Border Patrol agents to capture smugglers and illegal immigrants.

But that mission involved a wider variety of jobs for the state troops, Holman said. They also repaired fences and fixed vehicles to give the Border Patrol time to hire and train more agents.

The border agency now has about 2,500 officers in the San Diego sector, spokesman Mark Endicott said.

Reaction to the news in San Diego County was mixed.

To some, such as county Republican Party Chairman Tony Krvaric, stanching the illegal border flow can only be a good thing.

“This is about enforcing the integrity of our borders. I don’t know how you can argue about that,” he said.

Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Carlsbad, said the Guard’s presence will bring “some opportunity to help,” but added that the problem won’t go away until employers are forced to stop hiring undocumented workers.

“It helps those of us at the border. It treats the symptoms, it treats the pain, but it doesn’t solve the illness,” he said.

University of San Diego politics Professor David Shirk said Obama is continuing the failed policy of President George W. Bush by throwing more money at the border for manpower and technology.

Shirk said the United States has been bulking up the Border Patrol for at least 20 years but it hasn’t stopped the flow across the border.

“At the end of the day, the overall effectiveness of enhanced border security as a method to prevent unwanted immigration is not very good,” said Shirk, who is also director of USD’s Trans-Border Institute.

To avoid violating the federal statute forbidding the military from policing on U.S. soil, the National Guard will only provide added eyes and ears for the Border Patrol. They won’t interact with suspected lawbreakers and, although armed, will be instructed to shoot only in self-defense, federal officials said.

The Guard troops who will call San Diego home are still training and will arrive in the next few weeks.

Holman said the troops, some of whom served recently in Iraq or Afghanistan, are pleased to be providing security for their own borders.

“I think a lot of these guys and gals are proud to do that here on our soil,” she said.

Jeanette Steele: (619) 293-1030; jen.steele@uniontrib.com. Follow on Twitter @jensteeley