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PHOENIX (AP/KSL News) -- Fifty-five National Guard members from Utah arrived in Yuma on Saturday afternoon as the first troops to be sent to the Arizona-Mexico border in a new plan to crack down on illegal immigration.
"We're just gonna be building roads and putting up fences."
A Utah National Guard Unit that has already served in the Iraq war, now gets to help with another controversial mission.
The issues of Immigration and border security grabbed a lot of attention in recent months. The Minuteman Project has sent groups to patrol the American-Mexican border. Now, with President Bush's recent order, they'll be joined by members of the National Guard, with Utah's Guard members among the first to serve.
It's a sight, we've all kind of gotten used to: Soldiers being deployed for a mission the President ordered.
Sgt. Sterling Wilkey: "We could be a target. It's hard to say."
Sgt. Tina Frame, Utah National Guard: "I accept anything they ask me to do."
This Utah National Guard team has already been to Iraq once.
Sgt. Benjamin Grimstead: "We did have to deal with people who wanted to kill us."
Now they're getting assigned to the desert again, on another mission to protect America's interests.
Sgt. Sterling Wilkey, Utah National Guard: "It's our job. It's what we're told to do, even if we don't totally agree with it, it's our job."
But these soldiers aren't going to Iraq or Afghanistan or even another country. They're heading to Arizona, to be on the Mexican-American border."
Sgt. Benjamin Grimstead, Utah National Guard: "We're trying to protect our borders, make sure the people coming into the states are coming in legally.."
Border security between the two countries has been an extremely tense issue. It's controversial, political, and emotional... no matter which side you talk to.
But if you talk to these soldiers; they're just doing their job.
Cmdr. Talon Greeff, Utah National Guard: "We don't see ourselves as being in the middle of it. Those kinds of decisions are made by the president and the governor."
Sgt. Tina Frame, Utah National Guard: "I hear a lot of people's opinions, and I'm just glad that I get to be a part of it."
It will be hard work; setting up electricity for lights along the border, as well as building fences and roads. But for them, it's easier being along the border than in a war zone.
Sgt. Tina Frame, Utah National Guard: "I feel safer. I really do."
Under the president's plan, troops would perform support duties that would free up federal authorities to focus on border security. They wouldn't perform significant law enforcement duties.
The Utah troops, who will not carry weapons, will be in Yuma for two weeks installing improved lighting at a border crossing site, extending an existing border fence and building a road, McIntire said.
The projects will be done in the area of San Luis, Ariz., a town 25 miles south of Yuma with a fortified stretch of border with Mexico.
The town is part of the nation's busiest U.S. Border Patrol station.
A 12-foot corrugated metal fence divides San Luis from Mexico, followed 50 yards later by an 8-foot chain-link fence topped with barbed wire and towers with surveillance cameras. Stadium lights help agents spot those who try to slip across under the cover of darkness.
"We are pleased and excited that this has finally got under way because the request has been in place for so long in Arizona," said Jeanine L'Ecuyer, spokeswoman for Gov. Janet Napolitano.
Napolitano proposed a similar plan in December, but her plan remained on the shelf while funding was sought.
Arizona is the nation's busiest illegal entry point, and illegal immigration is considered the top political issue this year.
Officials say 300 National Guard soldiers from Arizona were expected to begin arriving at the state's border in mid-June.
About 170 National Guard troops are already helping federal and state officers there with communications, fence construction and anti-drug efforts.
The National Guard has been providing such assistance along the Arizona border for more than 15 years.
Troops from the Utah Guard were deployed to Iraq in 2004 and 2005 and helped with recovery efforts following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, McIntire said.
Their mission along the border will better prepare them when they are assigned to disaster and war efforts, he said.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Eventually, about 6-thousand National Guard soldiers from several states are expected to be stationed along the border.
