Bush pulls back half the National Guard troops
By Jerry Seper and Stephen Dinan
The U.S. Border Patrol is asking for volunteers among its agents to help build fences on the U.S.-Mexico border, even as President Bush is withdrawing half the National Guard troops he sent there last year to build fences.
A memo circulated last week to Border Patrol sector chiefs said fence-building efforts on the Southwest border were going to fall short of Mr. Bush’s goal of finishing 70 miles in fiscal 2007, which ends Sept. 30, “so the Border Patrol is now going back into the fence-building business.”
The memo, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Times, called on the chiefs to provide lists of agents who “can and have built fences in the past,” adding that the agency was looking for welders, equipment operators and “anyone else with construction experience.”
“They are moving quickly on this, so your sector’s response will be needed back here by noon tomorrow,” said the Aug. 6 memo, which asked that the Border Patrol be canvassed for agents qualified and able to work on fence construction.Rich Pierce, executive vice president of the National Border Patrol Council, which represents the agency’s 11,000 non-supervisory agents, said that while the Bush administration “on one hand is trying to convince the American public it is serious about immigration enforcement,” it has failed to provide the needed funding and manpower.
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