Speech #1090133994

I went down to Yuma. AZ. where the President was today. I saw firsthand what an extraordinary job our Border Patrol is doing. I also observed firsthand how undermanned the agency is and how overwhelmed they are with the numbers that are coming across our southern border. When I was at the border. I asked a question of the Border Patrol personnel. That question was: Could you use more National Guardsmen at the border. beyond those in the Counter Drug Program. to help you with your mission of protecting and securing our borders? The overwhelming answer was that they would absolutely welcome our National Guard in larger numbers down on the border. The Border Patrol was very clear. It would create problems if the National Guard were to come down to the border to carry on law enforcement duties like arresting. detaining. and questioning detainees. Each of those things are part of the speciality role that the Border Patrol should do. They are. after all. highly trained law enforcement personnel while the National Guard is trained in other areas. areas for which the Border Patrol requires support. In his. Monday night address. the President proposed using up to 6.000 National Guardsmen on the border this year. Their presence would help multiply the force of the Border Patrol that is currently on the border. What do I mean by that? In many instances. the Border Patrol Is taken away from their normal duties when they have to. for instance. perform a medical rescue of somebody who has gone into distress. This is actually a common occurrence in the southwest desert. Immigrants crossing the desert become dehydrated and nearly die. Some of the Border Patrol surveillance cameras might pick it up. or the alien pulls a distress beacon to signal they need help. and the Border Patrol actually goes to rescue them. This is something the National Guard is very well trained to do. When they are on the border. the National Guard can fulfill that mission which will free up the Border Patrol to perform some of the other functions of their duties. like arrest and detention. When the National Guard trains today. when personnel are performing their 2 to 3 weeks of training. they are building roads? building fences. and building bridges. They do all of these things as part of their training.