Official Says High-Tech Planes on Border No Substitute for Manpower

Some of the 287 soldiers assigned to the Texas border are gone Tuesday night and won't be back. Seventy-five percent of them will be gone by March. High-tech planes will do their jobs. Two powerful unmanned planes may be in the sky over our border.

"It's a more cost-effective way of spending our Homeland Security dollar," says Congressman Henry Cuellar.
Cuellar says the border doesn't need as many National Guard soldiers guarding it now.

"If you look at the number of people trying to cross into the United States, it's the lowest since 1972; 1.6 million used to cross. Last year, we saw 300,000 that passed," says Cuellar.

The president wants to pull 75 percent of the 1,200 National Guard soldiers on the entire southwest border by March. Only 300 will patrol the southwest border after that. A Texas National Guard spokesman says he hasn't been told what their mission will be. Cuellar says 1,100 more Border Patrol agents will fill the gaps the soldiers leave.

"You had National Guard troops doing the office work so agents could be on the ground. Now we'll have to pull back. It's just the wrong thing to do when cartel violence is up," says Cuellar.

Valley lawmaker Aaron Pena says Border Patrol agents need more help to protect the border, not less. He says the eyes in the sky are not enough.

"What we need most is intelligence, human intelligence. You can have drones flying over all you want; we're not going to be able to get the bottom of it," says Pena.

He says more apprehensions at the border doesn't mean cartels aren't still coming into Texas.

"We have a war going on to the south of us at the border. If we don't take care of the problem, the cancer is going to affect the rest of the United States," says Pena.

He says less boots on the ground makes the border less safe.

The 300 soldiers who will stay on the border after March will only be there until the end of 2012 unless the president decides to keep them longer.

KRGV.COM