Report urges troops sent to border

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The deployment of 36,000 National Guard troops or state militia on the U.S.-Mexico border would stop the illegal flow of foreigners into America, says a congressional report that credits the Minuteman Project with proving that additional manpower could "dramatically reduce if not virtually eliminate" illegal immigration.

The 33-page report, written by investigators for the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, said the Minutemen -- who shut down a 23-mile stretch of the Arizona border last month -- served as a model for a government effort to reclaim the southern border of the United States.

"The tide of illegal crossings on the borders of the United States is beyond unsatisfactory; it is catastrophic. It does not ebb and flow -- it only grows. It is rising without measure and eroding the very fiber of our safety, life and culture," the report said.

"As we wage the war on terror in foreign lands, we have all our doors and windows open at home. ... The insanity of such a policy, or silent toleration of such a policy is almost criminal in itself," it said. "The Minuteman Project demonstrated that illegal immigration on America's southern border can be dramatically reduced to manageable levels."

The report, to be released today, also said the U.S. Border Patrol failed "through no fault of its rank-and-file enforcement officers" to protect the United States from an influx of illegals.

It said the agency's uniformed leadership should be pointed in a "new direction" as it is in "total denial of the magnitude of the disaster" and -- as currently organized, staffed and supported -- "cannot be relied upon" to remedy the situation soon.

"The Border Patrol needs new direction from the Department of Homeland Security if it is to shake off the lethargy from years of undermanned frustration," the report said. "The patrol needs to empower its outstanding field officers to act as necessary to accomplish the patrol's mission ... to energize its leadership to think outside the box."

The report said Congress and the states could sustain the success of the Minuteman Project -- whose members were lightly armed, had no arrest powers, were not paid and traveled to Arizona at their own expense -- with the deployment of National Guard troops or state militia working in coordination with the Border Patrol.

The report said that sufficient reinforcements exist in current National Guard units and could be put on the border by governors and the secretary of defense within one month, if the political will exists.

As an alternative to using existing powers and forces, the report said, a $2.5 billion annual initiative coordinated through the states for the issuance of Homeland Security grants could authorize and fund state militia, or state defense forces, to assist the Border Patrol.