Thousands of U.S. Border Patrol agents are patrolling the nation’s vast border with Mexico. They are monitoring feeds from video cameras, motion detection sensors and even unmanned drones flying along the border, which is lined with hundreds of miles of fencing.
But all of that is still not enough to stop everyone seeking to illegally enter the U.S. or smuggle drugs into this country. So a small group of Georgia National Guardsmen have stepped — or more precisely flown — into the breach. Piloting Lakota helicopters with sophisticated surveillance technology, the troops are patrolling the Rio Grande Valley, the busiest part of the southwest border and now ground zero in the national debate over immigration.
President Barack Obama recently announced his administration is shielding from deportation up to 5 million immigrants living illegally in the U.S., a move that has drawn a mixture of praise and scorn across the nation. At the same time, the Obama administration is sharpening the focus of its immigration enforcement on the southwest border, where the Georgia troops are stationed.
So far this year in the Rio Grande Valley, the Georgia Guardsmen have flown for 2,575 hours, helped with 19,720 apprehensions of immigrants without legal status, deterred 895 more from illegally entering the U.S. and helped seize 7,351 pounds of marijuana, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection statistics.
“I was surprised to get here and find we are making apprehensions every single night,” said one of the Georgia helicopter pilots, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the danger posed by Mexican drug cartels. “I didn’t really expect it.”
The Georgia Guard’s mission — which cost $1.8 million in federal funding during the past fiscal year — underscores how these citizen soldiers are doing much more than fighting in wars and responding to natural disasters. They are also grappling with the thorny issues of illegal immigration and transnational drug gangs. Another example: Georgia Guardsmen traveled to Guatemala and Honduras this year and trained their troops to fight drug cartels. Those gangs have been blamed for the many unaccompanied children and teens who have surged north of the U.S.-Mexico border. So far this year, federal authorities have placed 1,709 of them in the care of sponsors in Georgia.
Transnational drug cartels are also a problem for Georgia. Police reported seizing $165.1 million worth of drugs in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina in 2012. That is up nearly 60 percent from 2011. More than 90 percent of the drugs seized were from Mexican cartels, according to the Atlanta-Carolinas High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, a federally funded anti-drug task force based in Atlanta.
“If we can stop it there, we don’t have to fight it on our streets,” said Capt. Scott Carden, who commanded the National Guard mission in the Rio Grande Valley until he returned to Georgia in October.
The Georgia troops are now based in Harlingen, a small South Texas town near the Mexican border. They fly at night, searching for people with powerful infrared radar. They are occasionally asked to help rescue immigrants seeking emergency help.
Carden described spotting large groups of unaccompanied immigrant children crossing the Rio Grande on rafts.
“I have kids that age,” Carden said. “I had to do some soul-searching and think, ‘Could I just say … goodbye to my kids?’ But also, ‘What kind of situation am I really in that is bad enough to send those kids out?’ It is kind of heartbreaking.”
U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued a statement calling the Georgia troops “an invaluable asset to the U.S. Border Patrol in its mission of securing America’s Borders.” The Georgians are scheduled to leave the border in December and be replaced by North Dakota National Guardsmen.
Maj. Gen. Jim Butterworth, the Georgia Guard’s adjutant general, said he would support sending his troops back to the border if their help is requested again. He underscored how the mission on the border has given his troops hands-on training.
“My best guess is that our folks will probably flow back out there,” said Butterworth, who will become director of the Georgia Emergency Management Agency in January. “I don’t think the need is going to go away.”
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