“I asked the staff to come up with innovative and original ideas for border security, and this certainly fits the bill,” the President said. To Richter, he asked, “How many of these CID units do you have available, Major?”
“Ten, Mr. President,” Jason replied. “I want to use eight for this mission, at least two per base, with two set aside for training, as a spare, and for other contingencies. Our emergency budget and engineering resources should give us another sixteen units on-line by the end of the year.”
“The cost of which hasn’t been factored into this budget,” Lemke said. “This is beginning to get out of control here, Jefferson. You need to rethink this proposal a lot more before presenting it to the Cabinet for approval, and certainly get the congressional leadership involved in the planning.”
There was a strained silence after that; then, the President motioned to Jefferson. “Sergeant Major, continue the briefing, please.”
“A preliminary security evaluation was recently concluded by Major Jason Richter, and he is here to present his findings. Major Richter?”
“Mr. President, Task Force TALON has studied the deployment of the U.S. Border Patrol over the past two days in both day and night operations, and we’ve toured several Border Patrol sector operations centers and observed their operations,” he said. “The current border control system uses a combination of ground and air patrols that deploy out of sector patrol locations, intelligence data collected by Border Patrol agents, twenty-foot- high steel fences erected within fifteen to twenty miles either side of the twenty-five legal border crossing points along the U.S.-Mexico border’s legal crossing points, and underground vibration sensors for the majority of all other areas. Approximately thirty percent of the border has some sort of electronic surveillance or a physical barrier. Of the remaining seventy percent of the border, however, my task force considers surveillance and security nonexistent.”
“I hope the Border Patrol gets an opportunity to respond, sir,” James Abernathy, director of the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, interjected pointedly.
“Don’t worry, Jim, you’ll get a chance,” Secretary of Homeland Security Lemke said. Under his breath, some of the audience heard him mutter, “I hope.”
“The fences are generally considered effective when properly maintained,” Richter went on, “but it has resulted in driving most illegal border crossings out into isolated, uninhabited regions beyond the fences. In most of these areas there is no fence of any kind marking the border; where private lands are adjacent to the border, there is usually just a typical barbed-wire cattle fence, which is easily crossed or cut down. Illegal migrants regularly do a lot of damage to private and public property in their efforts to make it into the United States.
“The vibration sensors are generally considered effective in detecting movement. When motion is detected, Border Patrol surveillance officers make a best guess on the number of persons detected by the sensors and report this to the on-duty sector duty officer. He then checks the deployment of his sector patrol units. Based on unit availability and the number reported by the sensor operator and other factors such as weather, intelligence data on wanted persons traveling in a certain manner or area, distance to travel, and availability of support units and detention facilities, he or she makes the decision whether or not to deploy patrol units.”
“The bottom line: you can generally see them, but you don’t or can’t always go get them,” the President summarized.
“The major’s analysis barely scratches the surface of the situation, Mr. President,” Abernathy said bitterly. “He can’t possibly make a fair evaluation after only observing our men and women in action for two days.”
“Understood,” the President said. “Continue, Major Richter.”
“It appears to my task force that the problem with border security is mostly due to a lack of resources,” Jason went on. “Simply put, there are simply not enough patrol agents or sensors in the field to cover such a long border. The terrain and climate are two major factors. Most of the border is not well patrolled because it is simply too rugged, too barren, too far from usable roads, or too difficult to operate in for any length of time. Weather conditions are usually extreme: hot, cold, windy, dry, and everything in between, factors that hamper effective patrol operations but won’t deter a determined smuggler or migrant from attempting the crossing.” Jason was happy to see that Abernathy was nodding slightly in agreement. “That concludes my briefing, sir.”
“Thank you, Major Richter,” Jefferson said as he returned to the lectern. “Mr. President, Operation Rampart will achieve its mission objective by utilizing reaction teams composed of unmanned tactical surveillance aircraft with specialized sensors to detect, locate, and track any person or vehicle crossing the borders, combined with fast-reaction ground and air units positioned in numerous locations along the border to stop the intruder and make an arrest. Instead of being deployed from headquarters areas to the border, these reaction teams will be located
“How many bases are you proposing, Ray?” the President asked.
“Approximately fifty bases, sir,” Jefferson replied.
“Yes, sir,” Jefferson replied. “They are not full-up air bases—they are small bare-base airfields with detention and support facilities. Each surveillance base houses a reaction team composed of an air flight, composed of two long-endurance surveillance airships, three utility helicopters, and field maintenance facilities; a security flight, composed of perimeter, facility, prisoner, and personnel security officers; and a support flight, which takes care of lodging, meals, physical plant, power, water, detention, transportation, and common areas.” Jefferson changed Powerpoint slides on the screen before the audience. “Each base would have about fifty personnel, which are deployed from active, Reserve, or National Guard military bases for a week at a time, once per month. They would…”
“The Army National Guard and Army Reserves have a total of seven hundred and fifty thousand personnel,” Jefferson responded. “Of these, about three hundred thousand are infantry, light mechanized, air cavalry, security, and intelligence-trained, appropriate for this mission. If we use just ten to fifteen thousand of them and rotate them to the Border Patrol mission once a month, we can fulfill the manning requirements. The advantage is that these citizen soldiers will be deployed right here, in the United States, close to home. That is a tremendous cost savings and morale booster. It may also be possible to augment some of these forces with volunteers.” He turned to the President and added, “It’s a substantial mission to undertake, sir, there’s no question. It might mean fewer infantry, support, logistics, and intelligence forces available to augment the active-duty force…”
“Assuming you use each unit just one monthly rotation per year, that means over one hundred thousand troops per year,” Chief of Staff Kinsly pointed out. That’s over a
“I want to hear about the plan first, Tom,” the President said irritably, “before I hear about potential political problems. One headache at a time, please.”
“I see men and equipment for surveillance and detention,” Secretary of Homeland Security Lemke pointed out, “but nothing for actually
“We can always increase the size of the Border Patrol,” Jefferson responded, “but I have another suggestion: using CID units.”
“Why am I not surprised?” Kinsly moaned.
Jefferson turned to Jason Richter, who stepped back to the lectern: “The CID units have the right capabilities for this mission, sir,” he said. “They’re fast, have better rough terrain capability than Humvees, they can carry a lot of heavy equipment, and they can perform other missions such as search and rescue, medevac, armed intervention…”
“What about your other task force missions, Major?” Jeffrey Lemke asked. “Won’t this slow down your pursuit of the rest of the Consortium? And what exactly will these CID units do?”
“They receive surveillance data from the unmanned aircraft or from ground sensors on anyone observed to
