tecoyah

With the recent Firefight taking place on our Mexican Border, I was a bit concerned for our Agents, and wondered why the were so rediculously unprepared for the offensive. Deciding to look into it a bit, mostly wondering where our National Guard might be after Bush sent them in....I found something interesting, and disturbing.

Any Comments would be appreciated, as I am not sure what to make of it:

Bush budget scraps 9,790 border patrol agents
President uses law's escape clause to drop funding for new homeland security force



Washington -- The law signed by President Bush less than two months ago to add thousands of border patrol agents along the U.S.-Mexico border has crashed into the reality of Bush's austere federal budget proposal, officials said Tuesday.

Officially approved by Bush on Dec. 17 after extensive bickering in Congress, the National Intelligence Reform Act included the requirement to add 10,000 border patrol agents in the five years beginning with 2006. Roughly 80 percent of the agents were to patrol the southern U.S. border from Texas to California, along which thousands of people cross into the United States illegally every year.

But Bush's proposed 2006 budget, revealed Monday, funds only 210 new border agents.

The shrunken increase reflects the lack of money for an army of border guards and the capacity to train them, officials said.

Retired Adm. James Loy, acting head of the Department of Homeland Security until nominee Michael Chertoff takes over, said funding only 210 new agents was a "recognition that we need to balance those things as we go on down the road with other priorities."

The White House referred questions about the border agents to the Homeland Security Department.

The law signed by Bush had a caveat that went virtually unreported at the time. A summary, published by the Senate Government Affairs Committee, required the government to increase the number of border patrol agents by at least 2,000 per year, "subject to available appropriations."

Democrats were unhappy that the proposed budget used the escape clause so soon after the president approved the huge boost in border agents.

"We know we must do more to shore up security along our borders," said Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, top Democrat on the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. "The president's budget does not even attempt to meet this challenge."

Some Republicans also were displeased.

"This is an area of homeland security that needs to be ramped up in order to increase surveillance and patrols of our nation's vast and often remote borders," said Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, chair of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

A Jan. 24 letter signed by leading Republican lawmakers implored the president to fully fund the new law "in order to secure our borders against infiltration by terrorists."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...NGOKB837T1.DTL

__________________
Holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. - Buddha

flstf

For some reason your link did not work for me but this one did:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...NGOKB837T1.DTL

This article is from Feb 2005. Since then I think they are proposing to send numerous national guard to the border. This of course is not as good as actually having more border patrol agents since the guard is for backround support only.

It seems as though the President, the Senate, and many house Democrats are not really interested in securing the southern border. Most border security support seems to be coming from mainly some house Republicans. I believe that many of our polititians are worried more about losing some immigrant (legal and illegal) votes than securing the Mexican border. Also many businesses that employ illegals are probably campaign contributors.

roachboy

this issue reminds me of a lovely book by w.g. sebald--austerlitz--and its meditations on the futility of fortresses. i'd recommend it. even if you dont agree with sebald, it remains is still lovely to read.

__________________
a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear

it make you sick.

-kamau brathwaite

Ample

Personally I don't think the boarder issue is as big of a deal that every one thinks it is. Its our government and the talking heads on news stations that are cramming this down our throat. Being a election year they seem to want to push this issue harder, but I’m sure come December, our politicians could really give a fuck.

I know the article is old and I am still a little green here, but I'm sure that this has already been talked about. Do you really want our National Guard to do this? I was always under the impression that our Guard was to help out when needed. Not be permanent fixes. They shouldn't be as many as there are/were in Iraq, and I don't think they should be obligated to stand patrol for years.

A southern state like Arizona is going to have guard members in Iraq and have guard members patrolling the border. What’s going to happen when the fires engulf half of the state. I already know that this year's fire season is terrible compared to years past. Haven’t the Guard in the past assisted local fire fighters?

Just seems that we are overusing the guard and spreading them too thin.

__________________

Her juju beads are so nice
She kissed my third cousin twice
Im the king of pomona

filtherton

It seems to be standard bush practice.

1. Trumpet your bold plans from the rooftops.
2. Bask in P.R.
3. Wait a few months, then quietly cut all funding and/or support for bold plan.