Today’s New York Times article by Randal C. Archibold raises questions about the ability of the border patrol to replace National Guard troops within the official timeline of one to two years.
“But as the Border Patrol seeks more agents,” writes Archibold, “its training academy in Artesia, N.M., needs expansion, and some watchdog groups question its ability to prepare so many new agents in so little time.”
Archibold reports that the Homeland Security Inspector General is already concerned about the Border Patrol’s hiring practices. Meanwhile, ambitious targets for funding new patrol agents are being scaled back.
In last week’s Narcosphere, Bill Conroy presented memos from Homeland Security that indicate shortages of prisoner beds, prisoner transportation, and lagging information tools.
Conroy repeats what critics keep saying, that National Guard training is a mismatch for border work.
Like the famous “mission accomplished” celebration that the President staged for the war on Iraq, the political shimmer of this week’s “border fix” will very likely begin to dim as militarization proves to be yet again the ultimate sign of political impotence.
MoPress 
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