Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
FNC
May 12, 2008
Special Report With Brit Hume (FNC), 6:00 PM
BRIT HUME: It is called Operation Jumpstart, a program that uses the National Guard to secure our borders. But the Guard is not deployed indefinitely and now a group of border state governors, including California’s Arnold Schwarzenegger, is calling on the president to extend the program.
Correspondent William La Jeunesse reports from San Diego.
WILLIAM LA JEUNESSE: Two years ago this week in a primetime address, President Bush called on the National Guard to help secure U.S-Mexican border.
PRESIDENT BUSH: (From tape.) We do not yet have full control of the border, and I am determined to change that.
LA JEUNESSE: The president called Operation Jumpstart a stopgap measure, a two-year deployment that would give the U.S. Border Patrol time to hire and train 6,000 new agents, with troops building fences and camera towers, conducting aerial surveillance, and monitoring video feeds, the project has been an overwhelming success. In fact, Army reconnaissance units like this one literally drove Mexican smugglers completely out of some border sectors.
SGT. MICHAEL DRAKE [California National Guard]: If we look at what we’ve accomplished on the border as far as the infrastructure, the numbers, the statistics of literally tens of thousands of apprehensions and turn-backs, I think you can only judge it as a success.
LA JEUNESSE: In 2005, the Border Patrol apprehended 1.2 million illegal immigrants. That figure is down 45 percent, suggesting illegal traffic has been cut nearly in half. The agency has also more than doubled the number of miles of vehicle barrier and tripled the miles of fence along the border – thanks mostly to the National Guard.
But Operation Jumpstart’s two-year deployment is up in three weeks and border governors are lobbying hard to keep it going.
LISA PAGE [Schwarzenegger Spokeswoman]: The governor is urging President Bush to extend Operation Jumpstart because it’s working. It has reduced the number of illegal border-crossings and it’s limiting human and drug trafficking.
LA JEUNESSE: The White House plan called for leaving the Guard in place until the Border Patrol reaches 18,000 agents, but the Patrol says it’s ready now.
DAVID AGUILAR [U.S. Border Patrol Chief]: When Operation Jumpstart began, there was about 11,300 border patrol agents on duty. Today, there are 15,850, going to 18,000, going to 20,000. When Jumpstart pulls out, draws down, we will be prepared to take over those responsibilities.
LA JEUNESSE: But critics initially faulted the president for militarizing the border. They feared bloody shootouts and innocent casualties. Instead, the administration’s stopgap worked better than expected and it now finds itself fighting its own success in trying to convince states that the Border Patrol is ready to pick up where the National Guard left off.
Outside San Diego, William La Jeunesse, Fox News.
May 12, 2008
Special Report With Brit Hume (FNC), 6:00 PM
BRIT HUME: It is called Operation Jumpstart, a program that uses the National Guard to secure our borders. But the Guard is not deployed indefinitely and now a group of border state governors, including California’s Arnold Schwarzenegger, is calling on the president to extend the program.
Correspondent William La Jeunesse reports from San Diego.
WILLIAM LA JEUNESSE: Two years ago this week in a primetime address, President Bush called on the National Guard to help secure U.S-Mexican border.
PRESIDENT BUSH: (From tape.) We do not yet have full control of the border, and I am determined to change that.
LA JEUNESSE: The president called Operation Jumpstart a stopgap measure, a two-year deployment that would give the U.S. Border Patrol time to hire and train 6,000 new agents, with troops building fences and camera towers, conducting aerial surveillance, and monitoring video feeds, the project has been an overwhelming success. In fact, Army reconnaissance units like this one literally drove Mexican smugglers completely out of some border sectors.
SGT. MICHAEL DRAKE [California National Guard]: If we look at what we’ve accomplished on the border as far as the infrastructure, the numbers, the statistics of literally tens of thousands of apprehensions and turn-backs, I think you can only judge it as a success.
LA JEUNESSE: In 2005, the Border Patrol apprehended 1.2 million illegal immigrants. That figure is down 45 percent, suggesting illegal traffic has been cut nearly in half. The agency has also more than doubled the number of miles of vehicle barrier and tripled the miles of fence along the border – thanks mostly to the National Guard.
But Operation Jumpstart’s two-year deployment is up in three weeks and border governors are lobbying hard to keep it going.
LISA PAGE [Schwarzenegger Spokeswoman]: The governor is urging President Bush to extend Operation Jumpstart because it’s working. It has reduced the number of illegal border-crossings and it’s limiting human and drug trafficking.
LA JEUNESSE: The White House plan called for leaving the Guard in place until the Border Patrol reaches 18,000 agents, but the Patrol says it’s ready now.
DAVID AGUILAR [U.S. Border Patrol Chief]: When Operation Jumpstart began, there was about 11,300 border patrol agents on duty. Today, there are 15,850, going to 18,000, going to 20,000. When Jumpstart pulls out, draws down, we will be prepared to take over those responsibilities.
LA JEUNESSE: But critics initially faulted the president for militarizing the border. They feared bloody shootouts and innocent casualties. Instead, the administration’s stopgap worked better than expected and it now finds itself fighting its own success in trying to convince states that the Border Patrol is ready to pick up where the National Guard left off.
Outside San Diego, William La Jeunesse, Fox News.