spmetla
05-04-2006, 09:54
Talking with some buddies of mine brought up the idea of using the Army to help secure the border with Mexico. Ideally it'd be like this (really watered down of course, it's just speculation):
Light and motorized units, Strykers, Humvees and such supported by Army aviation for spotting people crossing the border and detaining the illegal immigrants. Tanks, APC's, and BFV's would all be too heavy for this type of duty I imagine.
Units assigned to this duty would act under US Border Control and would hand over all detained illegals to Border Control.
Of course have some sort of civilian neutral elementl overwatching both the military and border control so that there isn't abuse of illegal immigrants.
The US Army definately has more resources and better technology to detect illegals crossing the border in all weather conditions. The aspect of aerial survelliance would probably be the best help to spot illegals along with the use enhanced vision systems (Thermals, Night vision etc..).
Although the duty would be a bit taxing on the Army due to it's need to constantly cycle soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan. On the plus side it'd be good real life training for countering insurgent activities. It'd certainly help in Iraq and Afghanistan if our military was more experienced at securing borders against infilitration by small units.
The Army also has a lot of hispanics within it's ranks making at least the language barrier easier to overcome.
And although this wouldn't solve the problem entirely I imagine it would at least allow the actual border patrol to concentrate on areas where the army couldn't operate as easily such as border towns that mirror each other on each side of the border and of course at the proper checkpoints where they'd ideally have freed up more personnel to assist in searching vehicles.
Besides, no matter what you're opinion on what to do with the illegals already withing the country I find few people that are against preventing more people from illegally entering the country.
Good idea or do my friends and I oversimply matters too much (or worse yet are we already doing it and we're just ignorant)? :juggle2:
Light and motorized units, Strykers, Humvees and such supported by Army aviation for spotting people crossing the border and detaining the illegal immigrants. Tanks, APC's, and BFV's would all be too heavy for this type of duty I imagine.
Units assigned to this duty would act under US Border Control and would hand over all detained illegals to Border Control.
Of course have some sort of civilian neutral elementl overwatching both the military and border control so that there isn't abuse of illegal immigrants.
The US Army definately has more resources and better technology to detect illegals crossing the border in all weather conditions. The aspect of aerial survelliance would probably be the best help to spot illegals along with the use enhanced vision systems (Thermals, Night vision etc..).
Although the duty would be a bit taxing on the Army due to it's need to constantly cycle soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan. On the plus side it'd be good real life training for countering insurgent activities. It'd certainly help in Iraq and Afghanistan if our military was more experienced at securing borders against infilitration by small units.
The Army also has a lot of hispanics within it's ranks making at least the language barrier easier to overcome.
And although this wouldn't solve the problem entirely I imagine it would at least allow the actual border patrol to concentrate on areas where the army couldn't operate as easily such as border towns that mirror each other on each side of the border and of course at the proper checkpoints where they'd ideally have freed up more personnel to assist in searching vehicles.
Besides, no matter what you're opinion on what to do with the illegals already withing the country I find few people that are against preventing more people from illegally entering the country.
Good idea or do my friends and I oversimply matters too much (or worse yet are we already doing it and we're just ignorant)? :juggle2: