Guard's hands-off approach tightens border security

By Brady McCombs
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Photo by james gregg / Arizona Daily Star

Perched on a hilltop near the border in the rolling hills east of Nogales, National Guard Tech. Sgt. Nick Livingston and his crew scan the horizon from east to west looking for illegal border crossers.

With rifles at their sides, binoculars around their necks and bulletproof vests underneath their camouflage fatigues, Livingston, 33, of Cincinnati, and three other Guardsmen form one of the entrance identification teams that stand post next to army-green tents along the Mexican border.

They aren't allowed to apprehend illegal entrants or leave their post. Their mission is to be extra eyes and ears for the Border Patrol. They did that well, said Border Patrol officials who credit the Guard with playing an integral role in slowing illegal entrant traffic across the Arizona border this summer.

"As soon as they got here, we noticed a big drop in apprehensions and entries," said Gustavo Soto, Border Patrol spokesman.

Border Patrol officials point to decreases in apprehensions, which they use to gauge illegal-entrant traffic, and border deaths as evidence of the Guard's impact. A heavy monsoon and increases in agents and fencing also played a part in the decreases, said agency officials and experts.