Many years ago, we found ourselves drinking a beer or three with a couple of Kiwis in a pub out in the middle of the Australian Outback. The owner of the pub, a pleasant middle-aged woman, came around to tell us we had to leave because it was closing time. We hadn’t finished our beer, so we lingered. A few minutes later she came around again to tell us we really had to leave.
We still hadn’t finished, so one of the Kiwis asked, “What happens if we don’t?”
“Ahhh, then you’d be in big trouble” she said with a big smile on her face. “Because I’d call the police and you’d only have three days before they showed up to arrest you.”
That summarizes President Obama rapid response to violence on the Arizona border as reported by the Los Angeles Times:
The Obama administration announced Monday that illegal immigrants from Mexico have until Aug. 1 to make it across the U.S. border before it gets really serious about border security with the deployment of 1,200 additional National Guardsmen there.
The Times story goes on to say:
The Aug. 1 troop deployment, announced weeks ago and being implemented next month to supplement previous border efforts, comes just three days after Arizona’s tough new illegal immigrant enforcement is scheduled to take effect. The ACLU, Obama administration and government of Mexico, among others, are challenging the law in federal courts, seeking an injunction to halt the July 29 implementation, called S.B. 1070.
The Department of Homeland Security said the additional troops would be deployed for one year to support surveillance and efforts to combat international drug trafficking along the border.
It said 524 troops would go to Arizona, 224 to California, 250 to Texas, 72 to New Mexico and 130 somewhere else in command support roles. The troops set for Arizona equal almost two per mile of state border with Mexico.
Far be it from us to dispute the Honorable Janet Napolitano, but those numbers didn’t sound right to us.
130 of them will be stationed “somewhere else in command support roles”, which leaves just 1070 that will actually be stationed on the border. (A remarkable coincidence, isn’t it, that Arizona’s anti-illegal alien law is SB 1070 and that Obama will station 1070 troops on the border?)
According to Wikipedia, the length of the Mexican-American border is actually 1,969 miles. So rather than two per mile as Napolitano claims, there will actually be just one National Guardsman every 1.84 miles.
Assuming that they patrol in three 8-hour shifts, that means one National Guardsman every 5.5 miles.
But even that is being far too generous, because if we assume that they patrol in groups of at least ten for safety reasons, that means one group of National Guardsman every 55 miles, far from the two per mile that Napolitano touted.
Feeling more secure now?
Claiming “a sense of unprecedented urgency,” the DHS statement quoted Secy. Janet Napolitano as saying:
Over the past year and a half, this administration has pursued a new border security strategy with an unprecedented sense of urgency, making historic investments in personnel, technology and infrastructure. These troops will provide direct support to federal law enforcement officers and agents working in high-risk areas to disrupt criminal organizations seeking to move people and goods illegally across the Southwest border.
Napolitano’s press release was issued on July 19. To complete the analogy started way back at the beginning of this story, the illegal aliens, drug runners, people smugglers and terrorists only have 12 days to finish their beers before the police show up.
And even then, they won’t have to worry too much because there won’t be enough “police” to actually make a difference.
Source: Los Angeles Times
