The Arizona Republic

The last National Guard soldiers assigned to protect the U.S.-Mexican border will arrive in Arizona from Guam at the end of next week. They will leave by July 15 in the final act of a two-year mission that has been widely credited with making the border more secure.
The mission, Operation Jump Start, which began in June 2006, was designed to give the Border Patrol some breathing room until it could hire thousands of additional agents and build hundreds of miles of border fence.
That has happened. Since the program began, about 4,500 border agents have been hired and 182 miles of fencing or vehicle barriers have been built. National Guard units put in about two thirds of the border barricades.
By the end of the year, the Border Patrol expects to hire 1,500 additional agents and build 340 more miles of fencing.
National Guard troops watched the border from observation posts, flew aircraft and built roads, fences and vehicle barriers. They also helped with paperwork to free up more agents for patrols.
But border-state governors, including Arizona's Janet Napolitano, think the National Guard should remain at least until additional goals are met. She, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson have urged the federal government to extend the mission beyond next month, to no avail.
One of the successes Napolitano and others point to is the Yuma effort.
In the year before the National Guard was deployed, the Border Patrol made 147,000 arrests at Yuma. In the past 12 months, agents arrested fewer than 13,000.
Government officials attribute the decline to the added security, although some critics say the economic downturn in the U.S. is an equal factor.
"Yuma shows it can be done," said Border Patrol Deputy Chief Ron Colburn, who was promoted from his job running the Yuma Sector.
In pressing for an extension, the border governors also point to sluggish progress on fence construction and an eight-month delay in deploying a network of sensors, or "virtual fence," near Sasabe. They and others have said the virtual fence is a failure, but Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff disagrees.
Earlier this year, congressional auditors and Border Patrol leaders testified that the project did not meet performance standards and that different technology would be tried.In a nod to those who want a military presence on the border, Colburn said military units may be used again on future planned projects, such as building roads and fences.
He suggested the Border Patrol may test remote sensors and mobile-surveillance systems for the Pentagon before such systems are deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. Also, the Pentagon is interested in using the border for extended training, he said.
Chertoff is scheduled to testify before the House Committee on Homeland Security on Thursday about his strategy, the Secure Border Initiative. He said Monday that full border security is within reach.
"If we continue on the course we've set now, we can get the border secure - by the Border Patrol's definition - sometime in 2011," Chertoff said. "If we can do comprehensive immigration reform, and if we could get a real temporary-worker program, we could actually do it faster."
Troops take leave
Earlier this week, the National Guard shut down its last observation post in Arizona. Soldiers were thanked at a farewell ceremony near Yuma. Near Douglas, helicopters flew the last mission to lift sections of fence into place. Elsewhere, commanders' duties involved wrapping up paperwork.
Guard members reflected on their experiences with mixed feelings. Soldiers in all four task forces on the mission said this week and over the months many of the same things: that they are proud of their accomplishments and that their presence made a difference.
They also learned to appreciate the work of the Border Patrol, adding that the borderlands were an eye-opener. Many said they thought the operation should continue.
Army Sgt. Ted Duhaime of the Arizona National Guard's 860th Military Police Company said he expected to see a constant flood of human traffic and "craziness" when he arrived at an observation post near Yuma early this year. Instead, he didn't see an illegal immigrant for three weeks.
"We did what needed to be done 20 years ago. I don't know what will happen from here on out, and frankly I'm a little worried. I'm not sure that there will be enough Border Patrol agents to keep this going," said Duhaime, a Chandler Police Department employee.
He wants the mission to continue and said the biggest lesson was that the Border Patrol doesn't need to catch lots of people crossing the border but only needs to deter them.
Senior Master Sgt. Roy Wann of the 188th Flight Wing of the Arkansas Army National Guard first joined Operation Jump Start to work construction projects at the border in late 2006. He returned for a second deployment on June 1. After Friday, he'll go back to his civilian job with the state.
"Most of the people on the line are very proud of the accomplishment. People's lives in all these towns along the border are better," Wann said. "When the American public actually sees this wall, they will be amazed."
Wann said he was amazed that, when he arrived, there was little more than a three-strand, barbed-wire fence - or nothing at all - along much of the Arizona-Sonora line.
Border agents grateful
Officials with the Border Patrol and its parent agency, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said they are grateful for the National Guard's help but are ready to carry on alone.
"Their leaving is not going to affect us because of everything the National Guard has done for us. . . . They have put in fencing that will be with us for the rest of our lives," Yuma Border Patrol Agent Eric Anderson said. "Our next mission will be to protect that infrastructure."
In 2005, Yuma Sector agents logged 2,700 times a car crossed the border. Now, it never happens, Anderson said, crediting the Guard's construction.
"Operation Jump Start accomplished what it set out to do," said Michael Friel, a Customs and Border Protection spokesman.
Time will tell if the gains made in the past two years will be temporary or sustained and if the other parts of the government's border strategy will fall into place on time.