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 News from Around the Americas | July 2006 
US Troops in Border Areas Armed for Self-Defense
 AFP
| | US Border Patrol agents seen here detaining a man caught after illegally crossing the border with Mexico in June 2006 in Pima County, Arizona. National Guard troops sent to southwestern US states to help secure the border with Mexico are being armed with sidearms, shotguns and rifles for self-defense, a top general said. (AFP/Spencer Platt) |
National Guard troops sent to southwestern US states to help secure the border with Mexico are being armed with sidearms, shotguns and rifles for self-defense, a top general said.
"But we're not going to be taking machine guns or mortars. We are not invading. We are not defending our border, and we're not invading Mexico," said Lieutenant General Steven Blum, head of the National Guard Bureau.
"So all we're doing is protecting our soldiers. So we'll arm them for that particular purpose," he said.
Blum estimated that about 40 percent of the up to 6,000 National Guard troops slated for deployment in the border area will carry arms.
Currently some 3,500 National Guard troops are assigned to missions in support of the Border Patrol in four southwestern states: Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California, he said.
The Guard troops were ordered to help the US Border Patrol earlier this year following charges that the government was not doing enough to stem the flow of illegal immigrants from Mexico.
Blum insisted that the guard will not be used to directly detain or hold migrants, a mission that he said is reserved for the Border Patrol and local law enforcement.
National Guard troops will build roads and fences and erect towers for sensors; they will perform aerial reconnaissance of the border with helicopters, planes and unmanned aircraft; and they will also help with logistics and analysis of intelligence data collected by law enforcement organizations.
National Guard crews working near the border on roads or other infrastructure may have armed Guardsmen as escorts.
"We will arm those that are in mission profiles that put soldiers in harm's way," he said. "They will carry sidearms, they will carry ammunition, and they do have the right to self-protect."
Guard troops will be armed mainly with handguns, he said, adding: "There'll be some rifles and there'll be some shotguns." |
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