Jump Start tightening border gap

BY SARAH REYNOLDS, SUN STAFF WRITER

April 8, 2007 - 10:03PM

The National Guard's Operation Jump Start hit the ground on July 1, 2006. After more than nine months, officials say it's improving the situation on the border, but there is much work left to be done.

Maj. Paul Aguirre, a spokesman for the Arizona National Guard, said there are about 6,000 troops on the U.S.-Mexican border assigned to Operation Jump Start at any given time. The project has put troops on the border to help U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents with logistics and observation activities.

Agent Lloyd Easterling, spokesman for the Yuma sector Border Patrol, said about 90 agents have been recruited since Operation Jump Start began.

About 2,400 Guard troops, or 40 percent, are assigned to Arizona. Numbers within the Yuma sector were not immediately available.

"That’s been a fairly consistent number over the last months. It ebbs and flows by a few hundred, depending on who comes out that day or that week," Aguirre said.

Troops from National Guard units from all over the country rotate in and out of the state to work on the mission.