The National Guard will withdraw from the Mexican border in July 2008 according to the timetable established in the Operation Jump Start (OJS) program. The Guardsmen have been augmenting the work of Border Patrol since OJS began in mid-2006.
Through January, the program has cost more than $1 billion.
The Guard performed as ordered in its non-enforcement role, building more than 100 miles of border fence and 18 miles of roads and improving more than 570 miles of existing roads. They provided aviation support and monitored border cameras.
Twenty-four percent fewer illegals made it across the border during OJS, as the Guard helped in the arrest of 140,000 illegal immigrants and seized more than 143 tons of drugs, mostly marijuana, according to a Guard spokesman.
As effective as the Guard has been, however, some feel it could have been more effective. The late U.S. Rep. Charlie Norwood (R-GA), the driving force behind the OJS program, had recommended in 2005, after studying the Border problem, that 36,000 troops, or 18 personnel per mile, would create an impenetrable border. He had researched and published this number in his 2005 report to the House Immigration Reform Caucus, “Results and Implications of the Minuteman Project.”
In the end, 6000 troops at a time were called up the first year for two-week intervals, instead of for six months, as Norwood had recommended. That number was cut to 3,000 troops after the first year.
If the 36,000-troop number sounds expensive, consider that the 36,000-man project would have cost around $2.4 billion per year (based on light infantry deployment numbers). Not a bad tradeoff against the minimum $70 billion-per-year cost to taxpayers from illegal immigration.
Let’s revisit that 24 percent interdiction rate. It is estimated that 1 million illegals cross the border into the U.S. each year. If 24 percent were stopped, that means that 760,000 made it across.
Also consider that the Guard received only 16% of Norwood’s recommended troops, and still reduced illegal entries by 24 percent. There is a distinct possibility that 36,000 troops could have actually sealed our borders.
The program was to be a short-term fix while the Border Patrol increased its numbers. When OJS began, there were about 12,000 agents. But, although President Bush said another 6,000 would be hired in the next two years, the Patrol now has 15,550 agents, or 3,000 less than promised.
Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano is pleased with any success that will keep illegal immigrants out of Arizona and has requested that the Guard remain, saying in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff that it is “clearly needed.”
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, in his Obama endorsement speech, said the Guard was still needed on the Border.