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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | June 2006 
Sizable Guard Presence on Border not Expected Until Late June
 Olga R. Rodriguez - Associated Press
| | A US Border Patrol officer patrols the fence at the US-Mexico border near Nogales, Arizona. The United States has begun to roll out the first of up to 6,000 National Guard troops on the Mexican border in a bid to reduce illegal immigration, the US Border Patrol chief said Friday. (AFP/Maxim Kniazkov) |
Monterrey, Mexico National Guard troops are trickling in to the U.S.-Mexico border but a sizable presence is not expected until the end of June, U.S. Border Patrol Chief David Aguilar told Mexican reporters Friday.
President Bush last month announced plans to dispatch up to 6,000 National Guard members to states bordering Mexico to support the Border Patrol and help stem the flow of illegal immigrants across the border.
In a videoconference with reporters in Mexico City, Monterrey and Guadalajara, Aguilar said it will take two to three months to deploy all 6,000 troops.
Aguilar said the troops will not have direct law enforcement duties and will be used mainly for road and fence building, transportation, surveillance and the installation of sensors and other border security technology.
If they come across an illegal situation, they will alert the Border Patrol but they won't be there to arrest or detain people crossing the border illegally, Aguilar said.
The federally funded mission is expected to last up to two years. In the second year, only 3,000 Guardsmen will be along the border, Aguilar said.
The troops will help free up Border Patrol agents to attend to border enforcement duties, and allow the agency to hire and train 6,000 more agents by 2008, Aguilar said.
Aguilar also said his agency is gearing up for what could be one of the deadliest summers for migrants sneaking through the desert and urged those already in the United States to stop encouraging their relatives to cross.
The people already in the U.S. are indirectly causing tragedies by asking their relatives to cross and putting them in dangerous situations, he said.
Aguilar said 223 people have died since October while crossing illegally into the United States, a 19 percent increase over the same period in 2004-2005. |
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