Once again. the Traficant amendment does not mandate the redeployment of troopsit simply provides the President with that option. Under the Traficant amendment. if the President decides to deploy troops to the border. the Pentagon would work with Federal law enforcement to decide how and where to deploy troops. The Border Patrol has only 6.800 personnel to guard the two longest borders of one of the largest countries of the world. The Federal drug czar. Gen. Barry McCaffrey. recently said that. to do the job right. the Border Patrol needs 25.000 agents. It will take years to even come close to that level. The Traficant amendment represents a prudent stopgap measure to bolster the Border Patrol and Customs Serviceuntil they have enough personnel to get the job done. But keep in mind that Congress and the President may never have the political wHI to fund that level of personnel for the Border Patrol and Customs Service. We have United States troops currently being paid by the United States taxpayer that are defending Haiti. Bosnia.
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Border Patrol