"1,200 Guard troops will be sent to border" by Associated Press | July 20, 2010
WASHINGTON — National Guard troops will head to the US-Mexico border Aug. 1 for a yearlong deployment to keep a lookout for illegal border crossers and smugglers and help in criminal investigations, federal officials said yesterday.
The troops will be armed, but can use their weapons only to protect themselves, General Craig McKinley, chief of the National Guard Bureau, said at a Pentagon news conference. The troops will undergo initial training and be fully deployed along the nearly 2,000-mile southern border by September.
The deployment announcement was made as drug-related violence has escalated in Mexico. Several people were killed over the weekend in a car bombing and a separate attack at a party in Mexico. Meanwhile, the US debate over illegal immigration has intensified this election year.
“The border is more secure and more resourced than it has ever been, but there is more to be done,’’ said Alan Bersin, commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, part of the Homeland Security Department.
He must be smoking some of the smuggled weed.
The 1,200 troops will be distributed in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas.
--more--"Also see: Arizona flooding claims life of girl, 12
Never made it into print.
