The National Guard troops pledged by President Obama in May for border patrol will start arriving on August 1st, just one day after Arizona’s SB 1070 is due to go into effect. The President pledged, amongst other things, 1,200 National Guards troops to the southwest border region. They will work with the 1,000 border patrol agents currently assigned to the region. National Guard Bureau officials see their role as “criminal and intelligence analysis, entry identification and surveillance.” The rest of the National Guard troops promised will be deployed by September.
524 troop members will be in Arizona, 250 in Texas, 224 in California an 72 in New Mexico and the rest will serve in administrative support positions.
