House votes to permit military to put troops on the border
There is, to my knowledge, only 1 nation on earth for which the placement of her own troops on one of her borders would cause an uproar in a statistically significant slice of her populace: The United States of America. I would have thought it to be a standard operating procedure, but it will literally take an act of Congress to permit such a placement. As of this morning, I see we’re halfway there:
On Capitol Hill on Thursday, the House voted 252-171 to allow Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to assign military personnel under certain circumstances to help the Homeland Security Department perform border security. The House added the provision to a larger military measure.
Paul McHale, the assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense, asked officials this week to come up with options for the use of military resources and troops — particularly the National Guard — along the border with Mexico, according to defense officials familiar with the discussions.
Many of the States along the southern border have been asking for this move specifically because they recognize what many of us have been saying for a long time – that the security assets deployed are inadequate. That the border isn’t a matter of law-enforcement containment, it’s a matter of national security and it’s going to take more than a drive-by every 6-8 hours by a couple of guys in a 4×4 to properly secure it.
I applaud the move and hope the Senate passes this measure as well.
Comment from mikeinmanila
Time May 12, 2006 at 10:20
Nice, but good – yes America has full civilian control over the military.
But in the past; US troops have been on the border. As recent as last year; all this is covered under laws designed to ensure continued civilian control over the actions of the Military. To prevent excutive abuse, and protect state rights.
In my travels overseas, I have seen places where this control- did not exist, the basic charater of military deployments make the deployments of military into areas of plainly law enforcement often a problemlematic situation and cause for tension.
Where the troops could be of moiost use actually is Laredo, Texas though where the problem is three fold, criminal gangs, drug trafficers, and, then the migrants issues.
Don’t get me wrong, Congress in my opinion is doing something good here by extending executive action limitations.
But, more than troops will be the answer needed to solve this problem.