Obama prepares to trim National Guard on U.S.-Mexico border

National Guard soldier scans U.S.-Mexico border

President Barack Obama will reduce the 1,200 federally paid National Guard troops deployed along the U.S.-Mexico border amid questions about the cost and fading impact of a marquee operation to back the U.S. Border Patrol, the Houston Chronicle has learned.

The Obama administration will revamp the way it deploys military personnel along the boundary, shifting from “boots on the ground” to stop people from crossing illegally to a broader mission that relies on aerial detection and additional border intelligence analysis.
The change in mission — a response to a steep drop in apprehensions along the border — is expected to gradually trim the number of National Guard troops on border-related active duty in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, where 274 National Guardsmen are on duty.

“The National Guard has acted as a critical bridge while the administration brought new assets online dedicated to effective border management and security,” Homeland Security spokesman Matt Chandler said.
Administration officials declined to specify the number of guardsmen who will remain on the border. The shift is expected to be announced before Dec. 31 when the tour of duty for the 1,200 guardsmen is scheduled to come to an end.

National Guard troops manned towers to spot illegal border crossings.

Ground troops will be replaced by Army National Guard and Air National Guard personnel carrying out surveillance by aircraft, helicopters and unmanned drones. Department of Homeland Security officials say the troop reduction is not a sign of a reduced commitment to border security but rather the result of lessons learned about border enforcement.

The focus on aerial surveillance “represents a historic and unprecedented enhancement in our ability to detect and deter illegal activity at the border,” said one federal official involved in administration planning. “If people concentrate on the number of troops on the ground, they’re sort of missing the point. This is next-generation border security.”

Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee’s investigations subcommittee, called the administration’s pending move “a step in the right direction toward technology and intelligence-based efforts along the border.”

Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin

McCaul said, however, that he remained “concerned that the administration is decreasing overall manpower” with the shift along the border. “While the National Guard is not the long-term solution and has its hands tied, they are necessary until we permanently increase our Border Patrol presence.”

Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, a veteran member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said he supported “revamping and changing” the National Guard mission. “We’ll use the National Guard in a more efficient and effective way so we can be more accountable to taxpayers.”

The Pentagon has long sought to end the roughly $10 million-a-month National Guard ground operation, which comes from the defense budget at a time when the administration and Congress are trying to curb federal spending.

But the White House and the Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection agency have wanted the National Guard operation continued until additional U.S. Border Patrol agents join the force and high-tech surveillance extends beyond sectors in Arizona and occasional border flights by unmanned surveillance drones.

“The president has been in a no-win situation,” says Rick “Ozzie” Nelson, a counterterrorism expert. “Pulling the 1,200 troops off the border would send the wrong message. But keeping them on duty has been very expensive in this budget-tight environment.”

The changes in National Guard operations come as the Border Patrol has added staff and seen greater success.

The administration now has almost 18,200 U.S. Border Patrol agents along the Southwestern border — double the 9,100 on duty in 2001.

Border apprehensions have plummeted to historically low levels, from 1.6 million in 2000 to 340,252 in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. The number of undocumented immigrants attempting to cross the border has also declined dramatically in recent years amid the economic downturn that created U.S. joblessness.

National Guardsmen working border assignments since June 2010 as part of $160 million Operation Phalanx assisted in barely 6 percent of the apprehensions of undocumented aliens during the opening 11 months of the operation. That was down from playing an indirect role in 12 percent of apprehensions during the 24-month, $1.2 billion Operation Jump Start that ended in mid-2008.

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Texas On The Potomac 

Are Zetas operating as police impersonators in the United States?

Editor's Corner
with PoliceOne Senior Editor Doug Wyllie

Whether or not Zetas are conducting paramilitary, police-impersonation operations here in the US, the incident in Houston is a watershed event indeed

 

The news out of Houston today that a group of criminals is staging armed raids on illegal gaming rooms in that city contains a very important wrinkle for our consideration — these violators are also police impersonators, and by all indications in the video these thugs have stepped things up quite considerably in their tactics — and tactical training. We’ve reported extensively here on PoliceOne in recent months on the variety of issues related to police impersonators, but today’s news presents us with an array of additional considerations to contemplate — not the least of which is the idea that HPD investigators are considering the possibility that these perpetrators are Zetas.

This is a very significant episode, whether or not it is found out that Zetas are conducting these types of operations here in the Untied States. At best, these offenders are ‘frequent fliers’ who have witnessed firsthand the movements and procedures of a tactical team taking down a room. At worst, well, we’re seeing a watershed event indeed.

Lest we forget, the Zetas did not start out as an independent cartel — they began as hired guns for the OTHER cartels. Many of those who self-identified as Zetas were retired from various branches of the Mexican military — most notably the Grupo Aeromóvil de Fuerzas Especiales (GAFE) special forces soldiers who had received excellent tactical training and conducted extensive operations in which their combat experience refined their skills to very high levels of effectiveness.

Check out this video, and then resume reading below.

 

Spillover in Tactics This afternoon I connected via phone with my friend Fred Burton, who has written a number of outstanding columns for PoliceOne, and has a wealth of knowledge related to the Mexican drug cartels as well as major trends and issues affecting American cops.

“We have a lot of problems in Texas in general — with gang violence and spillover crime. When you look at that kind of event — much like we had with the three-car ambush of the undercover informant the week before last in Houston — this is just indicative of the kind of criminal enterprise that we’re seeing,” Burton told me. “I don’t think this is actually Zetas, but what you do have is a lot of copycat activity with street gangs claiming to be Zetas because of that ‘street cred’ if you know what I mean.”

Think about that for just a moment. You have one group, pretending to be another group, pretending to be another — an American street gang, claiming to be Mexican Zetas, dressing up and presenting themselves as United States law enforcers.

“In reality, that kind of scenario as you saw [in the above video] we’ve seen in Mexico in the past. What you’re seeing is a lot of spillover in tactics. If you rewind a couple of weeks before this incident, you’ve got the ambush of the undercover informant, and now you have this MO where they look like cops — we see that fairly regularly in Mexico. ...No city is immune to this as we all know, but the closer you get to the border, I think you have more likelihood that you’ll have similar modus operandi coming across, bleeding across, because of the drug supply chain.”

Not Just Zetas
While there is a very real possibility that the individuals in that video are Zetas — their tactical acumen and their location near to the Mexican border do increase such a possibility — we must also be mindful of the fact that a variety of groups have been working hard on their training.

Let’s remember that street gangs in the United States generally — and in the American-Mexican border specifically — are frequently just one (or none!) degree of separation from those Cartels proper. Even the street gangs not directly affiliated with the Cartels are dealing the drugs those Cartels have sent across the border. Furthermore, these criminal enterprises — both American gangs and Mexican Cartels — do not limit themselves to drug trafficking. They’re into extortion, kidnapping, prostitution, stolen vehicles, you name it.

“What you’re seeing here is just a spillover in tactics” from Mexico to the United States, Burton reiterated.

“This is an emerging threat that 2012 law enforcement needs to be cognizant of — and on top of — not only tactically but also in terms of firepower as well. When you think about it in context, it’s not just Zetas or Zeta wannabes, you also have a tremendous number of potential US military, combat-trained soldiers that are rotating back into the Unites States.”

It’s not news that a number of individuals now known to be affiliated with criminal gangs have joined the United States military so they can be trained and sent overseas to get battlefield experience which can subsequently be brought back to the streets. We know there are “training camps” all over the country in which “Militias” of Sovereign Citizens are working on their tactics and throwing thousands of rounds downrange to sharpen their skills. And we know that through the broad availability of surplus police vehicles, look-alike and actual police uniforms and equipment, as well as unscrupulous or unwitting trainers providing bad guys with training, we have a serious problem looming ahead.

SWAT Versus SWAT
Imagine the scene in which you have a legitimate law enforcement SWAT team called out to that incident in Houston. The TV news reporters viewing the footage would be tempted to report that sort of an event as a SWAT team versus a SWAT team.

“Due to the fact that our tactics and uniforms are known to everyone, copying us is quite easy,” said my friend and colleague Marty Katz. Katz said. “Anyone can buy whatever they need to look just like a police office.

To make matters worse, some police academies will teach people not hired already by an agency. Change is needed with limited ability to copy uniforms. Movies and television have become reality and reality looks just like film. We gave away our secrets and until we enhance what we do, we are in trouble.”

“This is going to be one of those emerging issues that nobody really likes to talk about, but the street cops in 2012 are going to have to be ready to deal with,” Burton concluded.

About the author

Doug Wyllie is Editor of PoliceOne, responsible for setting the editorial direction of the website and managing the planned editorial features by our roster of expert writers. In addition to his editorial and managerial responsibilities, Doug has authored more than 400 feature articles and tactical tips on a wide range of topics and trends that affect the law enforcement community. Doug is a 2011 Western Publishing Association "Maggie Award" Finalist in the category of Best Regularly Featured Digital Edition Column. Doug is also a member of the Public Safety Writers Association and an honorary member of the California Peace Officers' Association. Even in his "spare" time, he is active in his support for the law enforcement community, contributing his time and talents toward police-related charitable events as well as participating in force-on-force training, search-and-rescue training, and other scenario-based training designed to prepare cops for the fight they face every day on the street.

Read more articles by PoliceOne Senior Editor Doug Wyllie by clicking here.

Contact Doug Wyllie

MCSO: Man deported from the United States fourteen times

Juan Ramos-Alegria.
Photographer: Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office

• By: Bryan Pahia

Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office arrested five suspected undocumented immigrants Monday night, including a man who has been deported from the United States 14 times.

According to MCSO, Juan Ramos-Alegria was the driver of the group. MCSO said that just one week ago, he had been deported from Colorado. It was reportedly the 14th time that has happened to him.

It was determined that the group had paid between $1,500 and $2,000 each to be smuggled into the US, according to MCSO. The group was reported to be headed for Arkansas and Georgia.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio said, “I will continue the crackdown on illegal immigration despite the threats and intimidation of my critics and certain politicians. We will enforce all the illegal immigration laws by raiding private businesses, human smuggling and crime suppression operations. This is unconscionable and irresponsible to continue to allow these smugglers to return to the U.S. after being deported."

Arpaio also said, “Yesterday Representative Raul Grijalva called for my resignation over some 2005 criminal investigations. In turn, I am asking for his resignation for calling for a boycott of Arizona due to my enforcement of SB 1070."

According to MCSO, the Sheriff’s Office continues to make arrests, contrary to claims from federal officials that there has been a decrease in drug and human trafficking at the US-Mexican border.

In the last two weeks, MCSO has reportedly arrested 18 suspected undocumented immigrants, and the Sheriff’s Human Smuggling Unit has booked nearly 2,600 undocumented immigrants on human smuggling charges since the unit was formed.

Copyright 2011 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

More US drones patrolling above border with Mexico

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The MQ-9 Predator B, an unmanned surveillance aircraft system, is unveiled by US Customs and Border Protection at Libby Army Airfield on Oct. 30, 2006 in Sierra Vista, Ariz. (Gary Williams/AFP/Getty Images)

 

 

 

 Teri Schultz

 

 

LUNA COUNTY, New Mexico — Raymond Cobos, the sheriff in these parts, said the horrors of Mexico’s drug war aren’t limited to the big cities of Juarez or Tijuana, and are creeping closer and closer to the United States everyday.

Just across the border sits Puerto Palomas, a Mexican town where Americans used to go — in relative safety — to shop, eat out and seek low-cost medical procedures.

But last years things began to change. And then, Cobos said, shocking events began happening on his doorstep.

“We saw the violence first-hand: the bodies, the tortures, the decapitations. People going to church found three heads displayed there in the plaza,” he said. “There doesn’t seem to be any single town anywhere of any prominence in Mexico that hasn’t had at one time a series of horrible criminal events in which people have been murdered, tortured, mutilated.”

Now fear is growing that such violence will spill over onto American soil and some officials are hoping that an increased reliance on unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, will help stem the tide.

More from GlobalPost: Complete coverage of the Drone Wars
Although the number of Mexicans illegally crossing into the United States is declining, the potential for drug-related violence — especially as an ongoing war among Mexican drug cartels continues to spiral — has reestablished border security as a hot-button issue, and made the use of drones along the border ever more popular.

The Congressional Unmanned Systems Caucus, commonly known as the Drone Caucus, is a congressional group that works to promote the use of drones both domestically and abroad. It has doubled its membership since January while the number of drones used on the border to track illegal immigrants and drug activity has also steadily increased.

A bipartisan group formed in 2009, the Drone Caucus argues that UAVs are a peerless asset whose use should be amplified not only in weaponized strikes against extremists abroad, but also for the surveillance and tracking of those trying to breach US borders.

Drones now troll the southern border from California to Louisiana, and the northern border from Washington to Minnesota. With a potential flight time of more than 20 hours, the drones make it feasible to cover vast expanses of difficult terrain, while "pilots" split the shifts on the ground.

The first Predator drone was assigned to the southwest border in 2005. Four more soon followed, with the fifth delivered in October to the Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, in the district of Rep. Henry Cuellar, who is a co-chair of the Drone Caucus. A sixth will soon arrive in Sierra Vista, Ariz., and two more monitor the northern border out of North Dakota’s Grand Forks Air Force Base.

More from GlobalPost: Are the drone wars legal?
Maj. Gen. Michael Kostelnik, a retired Air Force pilot who has been working with unmanned technology since the 1990s, said that in his current post as assistant commissioner for the US Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Air and Marine, the drones could prove an invaluable tool.

“If you look at how important the UAVs have been in defense missions overseas,” Kostelnik said from Washington, DC, “it’s not really rocket science to make adjustments for how important those things could be in the homeland for precisely the same reasons.”

Other than the fact that border patrol aircraft do not carry weapons — and despite the presidential campaign rhetoric, Kostelnik said they don’t intend to weaponize them — the units are identical to those used in Pakistan and elsewhere in terms of intelligence collection and real-time interdiction support for agents on the ground.

Tucson Border Patrol Division Chief John Fitzpatrick said it was difficult to put into numbers just how valuable the drones could be for border security.

“Whenever the aircraft shows up, the agents on the ground are more successful and more efficient in what they do,” he said. “It gives us a lot of capabilities we didn’t have before.”

He acknowledged that there was some discomfort with the technology from people living in the area, who worried that the government would be looking into their backyards.

More from GlobalPost: The rationale behind the Drone Wars
“We reassure them there’s accountability in everything we do,” Fitzpatrick said.

For now, supply appears to be outweighing the need and on Capitol Hill, the Drone Caucus appears to be in overdrive. The last three UAVs purchased for border patrol — at a price tag of $32 million from the 2010 budget — were not even requested by Customs and Border Protection, according to an official from the Department of Homeland Security who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Congress sent no extra money for missions or maintenance, despite reports that planes already in service remain grounded at times due to a shortage of pilots, spare parts and other logistical restraints.

Customs and Border Protection reported that drones have been responsible for the apprehension of 7,500 illegal immigrants since they began operating six years ago — a tiny fraction of the total number of arrests that have been made over the same period. Using other means, in six years, the agency has apprehended almost 5 million people.

T.J. Bonner, head of the National Border Patrol Council, a labor union representing border patrol agents, said the low numbers prove that money is better spent on manned aircraft and boots on the ground.

More from GlobalPost: The people behind the drones
“People play with the facts around this stuff,” Kostelnik said with frustration, acknowledging that high-profile, targeted killings overseas have politicized even unweaponized missions.

When asked what help he needed most back in Luna County, Sheriff Cobos said he would prioritize “boots on the ground,” but wouldn’t object to a little unmanned help.

Unlike Texas and Arizona, New Mexico doesn’t have a facility to receive data from drones, so it has had to rely primarily on a low-tech approach — manually tracking known routes with a night-vision scope, searching abandoned houses and sidling along the border, watching for Mexicans climbing and jumping off the 12-foot high border fence.

The other states are “banging their drums while we’re using a popsicle stick,” Cobos said about New Mexico.

“Sooner or later the cartels are going to say, ‘Hey, why aren’t we utilizing this space? Why are we trying to shove it through Arizona and Texas?’” he said. “The possibility [there’s] going to be a catastrophic civil war in Mexico is pretty high, and I have to face the probability that at some point I have to deal with it.”


GlobalPost 

Justice Dept. Caught in Lie About 'Fast And Furious'

Justice Dept. Caught In Lie About 'Fast And Furious'

Investors Business Daily | Posted 12/05/2011 06:04 PM ET

Scandal: The Justice Department has formally withdrawn a letter to Congress denying it sanctioned or allowed guns to be transferred to Mexico because it contained "inaccuracies." That's one way of putting it.

Back in February, Assistant Attorney General Ron Welch, in response to the investigations by Rep. Darrell Issa and Sen. Chuck Grassley of the Fast and Furious gun "walking" program run out of ATF's Phoenix office, wrote a letter stating that the "allegation that ATF 'sanctioned' or otherwise knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons is false."

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Welch contended, "makes every effort to interdict weapons that have been purchased illegally and prevent their transportation to Mexico." Another Friday document dump has confirmed what agent testimony and other information have already shown — this letter, and almost everything in it, was a complete fabrication.

Coincidentally on Friday, Deputy Attorney General James Cole, in another letter to Congress, wrote: "Facts have come to light during the course of this investigation that indicate the Feb. 4 letter contains inaccuracies." In other words, the Department of Justice lied to Congress.

Arizona farmer outfitted with Glock, bullet-proof vest for safety

by Crystal Cruz

azfamily.com

Posted on December 6, 2011 at 7:00 AM

Updated today at 7:02 AM

Related:

Promises, promises: Securing US border impossible

SAN TAN VALLEY, Ariz. -- There was a time when farmers were just concerned with protecting their animals. That's no longer the case.

"Now I'm worried about am I going to come home at night after work," said Scott Blevins. The farmer and father has every reason to worry. What Blevins witnessed out here last summer was a game changer.

"The Maxima came around here and drove into our farm and knocked out some borders at a high rate of speed," Blevins recalled.

The farmer said Border Patrol stopped the car and insider were drug smugglers carrying a hefty load.

"To have it actually occur on my property, it’s getting way to close to home," Blevins said.

That's why this farmer isn't playing around. For safety he wears a bullet proof vest and pack a handgun and rifle to work.

"I’m convinced somebody’s going to see something they shouldn’t see and somebody’s going to die," Blevins said.

Steve Henry, the chief deputy in the Pinal County Sheriff's Office, agreed.

"It’s not a stretch of the imagination," he said. "I think Mr.Blevins is onto something."

Henry said it's no secret drug smugglers use farms to evade deputies.

"It happens all the time, matter of fact three times yesterday," Henry said.

Despite the danger he believes is imminent, Blevins refuses to leave.

"I want my daughter to have the same opportunities I had and if I have to stand up to be a voice I think that would make my daughter proud," Blevins said.

Henry said his office is doing their best to combat the problem, but the office is understaffed by 100 deputies.

Pinal County Sheriffs INTERCEPTORS

The Pinal County Sheriff’s Office is in the national spotlight once again following the release of a documentary that focuses on smuggling efforts through Arizona’s fastest growing County.



“Interceptors,” featured in the National Rifle Association's Life of Duty television series, was released on Friday and documents the constant fight of human and drug trafficking facing PCSO and the citizens of Pinal County.



Featured in the 20 minute video are Sheriff Paul Babeu, Lieutenant Matthew Thomas, Deputy Samuel Pacheco and Deputy Marc Miller.



Producers with the NRA spent several days conducting interviews and were given access during a multi-jurisdictional operation to combat anti-smuggling operations that included members of PCSO.



PCSO also provided the NRA with video taken during the recent drug takedown know as Operation Pipeline Express; a muti-agency effort which targeted the Sinaloa Cartel organization from Mexico.



Sheriff Babeu stated, “This documentary is a true depiction of the border crimes we see 75 miles north of the U.S./Mexico border. I’m grateful to the NRA for giving my office a chance to showcase what we’re all about and if there’s any doubt regarding the real problems facing our nation when it comes to border security, this documentary helps expose what’s really going on.”