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| Federally Funded "Border Militia" Proposed | |
| 2005-10-05 | |
| Several border area Congressmen said Tuesday they're preparing to introduce a measure calling for a federally funded, sworn border militia to patrol the country's borders and assist the U.S. Border Patrol, the Office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and other federal border security agencies, 1200 WOAI news reported today. U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) says the proposal calls for the federal government to spend $100 million over several years to hire, train, and equip 'reserve deputies,' who would patrol the border under the authority of border county sheriffs. Cuellar said the measure is in response to the activities of the Minutemen and other civilian groups which have recently encamped in border areas of Texas and Arizona, and claimed to be helping report illegal immigrant activity. "These people would be trained, they would be sworn, they would be inside the law enforcement chain of command, and this would be a lot different than the Minutemen, who are out there on their own, and we don't know who they are or what their motives are," Cuellar said.
Cuellar says the members of the militia would be 'reserve deputies.' He says they could be retired law enforcement officers, or part time officers who work on an as needed basis at the command of local officials. "Those sheriffs would work arm in arm with the Border Patrol to provide security along the border." Cuellar says how the reserve officers would be deployed, what their duties would be, and whether they would be armed would be up to the local officials and would be handled according to the laws in place in each jurisdiction. He says the militia would have a decided advantage over the Minutemen, whom Cuellar said he 'doesn't want' in Texas. Cuellar said most of the Minutemen are untrained volunteers from out of the area, and the reserve deputies would have to be residents of the county where they would be deputized. "They know the trails," he said. "They know the area because they have been doing this kind of work for a long time." Cuellar unveiled his proposal at a time when several hundred Minutemen volunteers are engaged in a border watch operation in Brooks County, in rural south Texas. | |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #14 si. |
| Posted by: illegal me 2005-10-05 19:07 |
| #13 Looks like a Federal buyoff program. Become a deputy. Be paid for doing nothing. STFU about the illegals in your county. Capice? |
| Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2005-10-05 15:43 |
| #12 Hell Upstanding, I'll do it for nothn' 'cept shells and cold ones. I'm spending too much $$ on range time anyway. |
| Posted by: Doc8404 2005-10-05 14:41 |
| #11 U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) says the proposal calls for the federal government to spend $100 million over several years to hire, train, and equip 'reserve deputies,' who would patrol the border under the authority of border county sheriffs. Any guarantee that these new deputized individuals would actually do their job, or be allowed to do their job? Or is this just another way to put more people on the federal payroll? |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2005-10-05 13:38 |
| #10 I can do it for half price. Just don't ask me about the employees status. |
| Posted by: Upstanding Pillar of Business Guy 2005-10-05 13:27 |
| #9 "...and the reserve deputies would have to be residents of the county where they would be deputized." Of course. Out-of-towners don't know the right drug connections and might disrupt supplies. It's really all about drug trafficking and the bribes to supplement their income. |
| Posted by: Danielle 2005-10-05 13:24 |
| #8 "...and the reserve deputies would have to be residents of the county where they would be deputized." Doesn't want volunteers but is fine with a Federally funded militia. Of course, they must live in a county from his district. Yeah, sounds like a Democrat proposal to me. |
| Posted by: DepotGuy 2005-10-05 12:39 |
| #7 Why would we need to pay $100 extra million to do in 'a few years' what the Minutemen are doing for free right now? Oh, it's the government. Forget I asked. |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2005-10-05 12:07 |
| #6 The sole purpose of this act is to get control over the Minutemen, to get them to stop interfering with the flow of illegal aliens. The irony is that a handful of Minutemen, properly placed on the border, radically multiply the effectiveness of the Border Patrol. This is because they are not only positioned on the major corridors, but tactically they are stationary, whereas the BP are maneuverable. Using a chess analogy, it is the difference between having just a knight and having a rook and a knight. So even though the feds leave the BP way undermanned, with intent that they fail in their mission, the Minutemen still result in there being an illegal alien labor shortage in the US for those corrupt businesses that use them. In turn, these businesses exert extreme pressure on the government to come up with some way of neutralizing the Minutemen and returning to the status quo. Literally billions of dollars in cheap labor costs each year is a big incentive. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2005-10-05 12:02 |
| #5 No its a creative way to get around the Posse Comitatus Act. Since too many are scared by Hollyweird fiction about the military in civil police operation and their civil liberties [though the Act actually had the effect of denying blacks' their civil rights for nearly a hundred years], this is a means to obtain manpower. I guess the Civil Air Patrol is the tin-foil hat crowds version of the Hitler Youth. They're rats, rats I tell you. |
| Posted by: Javirt Thrusing6823 2005-10-05 08:36 |
| #4 Wait, what happened with that proposal? (Clinton's.) |
| Posted by: Edward Yee 2005-10-05 03:48 |
| #3 Isn't that the entire purpose of the border patrol? It does seem alot like a trojan rat, just like Clinton's 100,000 new cop propsal was. |
| Posted by: Silentbrick 2005-10-05 01:46 |
| #2 the proposal calls for the federal government to spend $100 million over several years to hire, train, and equip 'reserve deputies,' who would patrol the border under the authority of border county sheriffs. aren't there already folks that are trained that are just out of work? I say hire the guys that already know how to patrol these areas, and spend the money on equipment and support for them to get the job done. |
| Posted by: Jan 2005-10-05 01:34 |
| #1 please, most folks know where "the trails" are. More folks patrolling the border would be a good thing. |
| Posted by: Jan 2005-10-05 01:24 |