Standing guard (Nat'l guard gets harsh reality on Border!)

"This call-out was a way for us to do something in the United States, helping our own."

Standing guard By Jerry Seper

THE WASHINGTON TIMES

August 13, 2006 NOGALES, Ariz.

Sgt. Steven W. Jacobs of the Virginia National Guard, one of thousands of guardsmen from 30 states deployed along the southwest border with Mexico, says he arrived here with "no idea" of how vulnerable America is.
"I believe 95 percent of the people in this country have no clue of what it's like down here," says Sgt. Jacobs, a bear of a man with a vise-grip handshake. "I know I had no idea how many people come over this border every day and the weird things they do to get across.
"They'll do anything to get into the United States, often coming over with just the clothes on their back," he says. "And it's not just here; this happens all along the border. I was very surprised at what I saw when we first arrived, but I am here to protect my country, and I will stay as long as they need me."
Members of the team work 24 hours on and 24 hours off to fight this invasion of illegal aliens while facing temperatures that rise above 100 degrees, fearsome thunderstorms that send rivers of water down nearby gullies and swarms of always-present flies.
Using binoculars, night-vision equipment and global positioning systems, the team seeks to spot anyone trying to enter the country illegally and to report their position to the Border Patrol. About a third of the National Guard force is assigned to entry-identification teams.
"It's a long, hard shift, but we have been very successful," Spc. Jessee says. "We do the best we can to keep tabs on what is going on in our area, and the Border Patrol has responded quickly to our calls."
More than 150 illegal aliens used to cross nightly into the United States over a ramshackle metal fence at the base of a hill here just below a ridge, on which the team set up an observation post. On the hilltops just south of the border, Mexican spotters train equally sophisticated equipment on the Guard, directing smugglers of aliens and drugs to safer areas.
"They've got their own spotters watching us, trying to catch us when we're not looking," Sgt. Jacobs says.

'Significant dent'
Alien smugglers, he says, sometimes send people along the border to see how the Guard troops react and how quickly the Border Patrol responds. But he says his team has put a "significant dent" in the number of aliens crossing into his sector, with the daily count dropping from 150 to fewer than 20.
'Eye-opening' service
All of the 6,199 Guard troops stationed in the border states volunteered for the mission. Among them is Spc. Travis Arnold of the Wisconsin National Guard, who also served a year in Iraq. He says he plans to help secure the border for two years.
"This certainly has been an eye-opening experience," Spc. Arnold says. "Immigration is not a huge issue in Wisconsin. It was the sheer number of people coming over that border that surprised me the most. I had no idea how many people jump that fence every day."
Spc. Arnold works eight-hour shifts at the Border Patrol field office in Nogales. He and a partner, Spc. Kirstin Schultz, monitor live border-surveillance videos on more than 40 television screens. Their job is to report to the Border Patrol any incursions by illegal aliens or drug smugglers.
"I didn't realize just how quickly they come over the fences," Spc. Schultz says. "We are the agents' eyes until they make contact, and we can get them additional help if they get into trouble."
Sgt. Brian Eckberg and Spc. Timothy Reisinger, also members of the Wisconsin National Guard who work at the Nogales field office, are assigned to monitor the detention area. They do required paperwork on apprehended border crossers, maintain detention records and call for help for agents when they need it.
"We are freeing up the agents to be able to do enforcement work in the field," Sgt. Eckberg says. "I feel we are accomplishing a lot here for the agency and the country."
More than 200 illegals a day are processed at the detention center at the Nogales station. With 500 agents, the station is the agency's largest and sits close to the border with Mexico.

'Glad to be here'
Maj. Fay Ludens, a National Guard spokeswoman, says the troops "are glad to be here."
"Nobody is here who didn't want to be here," says Maj. Ludens, a member of the South Dakota National Guard who retires this month after 23 years. "I think we have all learned a lot about the Border Patrol and how the Border Patrol and the National Guard can work together.
"This call-out was a way for us to do something in the United States, helping our own."
Border Patrol spokesman Sean King says the Guard's presence in Nogales alone enabled that field office to free up 40 agents for enforcement duties along the border, a 10 percent staffing increase per shift. The increased manpower, he says, allows the office to put agents in areas "not now patrolled."
"The National Guard has given us the ability to strengthen our overall effort to secure the border," Mr. King says.
Apprehensions dropped by 17 percent in the Nogales office's 32-mile jurisdiction, he says, and 21 percent in the Tucson sector, which includes 281 miles of border.
Last year, the Tucson sector accounted for about half of the 1.15 million illegal aliens apprehended on America's southern and northern borders -- about 1,300 arrests every day.
Gen. Blum, the Guard's bureau chief, describes Operation Jump Start as a law-enforcement operation rather than a military one. He says the Guard's role is to provide military support to civilian law enforcement, as directed by the president and the secretary of defense.
"We are not doing Border Patrol law-enforcement work," Gen. Blum says during a press conference in Washington. "We're doing everything else that other badge-carrying Border Patrol people used to have to do. We are replacing them so that they can get badges back to the border."