Members of state’s Guard will go south

Published 9:00 pm Friday, August 11, 2006

OLYMPIA – Several hundred Washington National Guard members are days from deploying to Arizona to join federal efforts to curb illegal border crossings from Mexico.

“An official request has been received,” said Master Sgt. Jeff Clayton, a National Guard public affairs officer. “We are in the process of putting together a task force.”

Plans are for a “couple of hundred” soldiers to head out in late August and be on the ground “through the month of September,” he said.

“There are people who’ve volunteered to go and been told they will be part of the task force that is going,” Clayton said.

Details on how many will go, who they are and what they will do should be released next week, he said.

None will be involved in direct law-enforcement duties such as arresting those trying to enter the U.S. illegally, he said.

Guard members will carry out the chores of U.S. Border Patrol officers, freeing that agency to focus on catching illegal immigrants. Guard work could include building fences, installing vehicle barriers and monitoring surveillance equipment.

“We’re still evaluating the mission,” Clayton said, adding they are looking to fill the ranks of officers and ensure they have people with the right skills for the anticipated duties.

All who go will do so voluntarily. Finding enough people shouldn’t be difficult.

In June, Pentagon officials asked leaders of the state’s National Guard if a company of 350 members could be gathered. Calls went out and more than twice that number responded and said they would go.

This will not be the state’s first delegation of soldiers sent to the southern border.

Two weeks ago, 33 Air National Guard members traveled there. Seventeen from the 252nd Combat Communications Group at Camp Murray went to set up a radio communications network. Sixteen members of the 141st Air Refueling Wing went to Nogales, Ariz., to help build a field hospital there.

Washington is the latest state whose National Guard members will help to carry out President Bush’s plan to beef up security and cut the number of those trying to enter this country illegally.

In May, the president said he would seek to send 6,000 National Guard members in the next two years to assist officers in four Southwest states abutting Mexico. Soldiers would be used until additional Border Patrol officers are hired.

Reporter Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623 or jcornfield@heraldnet.com.