TASKS ARE WORKADAY FOR GUARD TROOPS ON BORDER

NOGALES, Ariz. -- The border may have a reputation for drama, intrigue
and danger, but Specialist James Dwiggins of the Wisconsin National
Guard has not seen much of that in the reception booth of the Border
Patrol station here, where he works answering phones and sliding a
clipboard for visitors to sign in.

From a camera room at the station, Specialist Kirsten Schultz of the
Wisconsin Guard has seen a lot of people crossing the border. Out in
the field, Specialist David Murray of the Virginia National Guard
stares out at the loping hills lining the border, waiting and watching.

"I don't see that we are having an impact," said Specialist Murray,
camped on a rainy afternoon at an observation point covered in
camouflage netting with three other soldiers. "But every time the
Border Patrol comes up, they tell us movement of people has almost
completely stopped through here."

For the National Guard troops sent here, many of the tasks in the
border mission may seem humdrum, but the Border Patrol, eager for any
help it can get, has claimed some early success as the operation moves
into full swing.

Critics still question whether the Guard troops, who do not make
arrests because they are not trained to do so and to avoid domestic
and international political squabbles, are making a big difference.
But Border Patrol officials say the soldiers, whether in an office or
on a hilltop, have freed more than 250 agents for regular patrolling,
which, combined with the presence of the Guard, has acted as a
deterrent to crossers.

The number of arrests in July, when large numbers of soldiers took up
positions, declined 37 percent to 59,613 along the 2,000-mile-long
Southwest border compared with July last year, officials said. Guard
troops have also participated in several rescues of crossers stranded
in the desert, they said.

"Operation Jump Start has been tremendous," the Border Patrol chief,
David Aguilar, told reporters last month. Arrest figures fluctuate
greatly because of trends in enforcement, weather -- July was
unusually hot in many border areas -- and political and socioeconomic
conditions in Mexico and Central America.

Advocates for migrants said they suspected human trafficking had
simply shifted away from the more fortified positions into more
remote, rugged terrain. Since October, the beginning of the
government's fiscal year, arrests over all have declined in Arizona,
the current focus of enforcement, but increased in California,
suggesting trafficking is returning there after years of declines.

The presence of the Guard, moreover, apparently has not deterred drug
smugglers, with the Border Patrol reporting an increase in drug
seizures -- marijuana is up 20 percent to 1,262,860 pounds and cocaine
less than 1 percent to 8,816 pounds -- so far this year.

President Bush ordered the Guard to the border as a stopgap while the
Border Patrol hires and trains 6,000 agents by the end of 2008,
bringing the force to 18,000.

The Guard's duties, which include operating cameras and observation
posts, fixing vehicles, and repairing and building fences and roads,
have not mollified critics who call the mission window dressing to
appease conservative lawmakers demanding more action to stanch the
flow of illegal immigrants.

Mr. Bush had set a goal of up to 6,000 troops on the border by Aug. 1.
The National Guard said that 6,600 were in the four border states but
that only about 3,000 were "forward deployed" near the international
boundary, with the rest working as administrative staff or undergoing
training. Guard officials said that though Mr. Bush said the troops
"will be deployed to our southern border," they never planned to have
that many right on the line.

"In normal operational planning, part of the operation is always going
to be logistics," said Lt. Col. Michael Mallord, a spokesman for the
Guard in Washington.

Thirty of the 54 states and territories with National Guard troops
have contributed troops, while several others will not because they
are needed for possible home emergencies like wildfires, flooding and
hurricanes. In June, California rejected a Guard request for
additional soldiers.

"I think it is fair to say it has taken some work to find 6,000
people," said Christine Wormuth, a senior fellow at the Center for
Strategic and International Studies in Washington who studies the
Guard. Maintaining anything near that level "is going to be a
challenge from a management standpoint," she said, though Colonel
Mallord said they would "easily" maintain strength at the border.

"There is no question in my mind they are providing added value," Ms.
Wormuth added, "but in the grand scheme of border security it is not
clear this deployment is going to dramatically enhance the nation's
border security."

Nevertheless, the men and women here, from Arizona, Kentucky, Nevada,
Virginia, Wisconsin and other states, say participating in the
mission, in most cases part of their regular two-to three-week annual
training obligation, may lack a certain drama but has brought them a
first-hand connection to the headlines.

The majority asked for border duty, and some may stay for several
months; unlike normal deployments, the soldiers, at least for now, are
largely camped in motels and hotels, ranging from the highly rated
Loews Ventana Canyon resort near Tucson to the more modest Americana
hotel in this city's gritty downtown.

"You hear about it in the news and then you see it here," said Sgt.
Howard Renfro of the Virginia Guard, who on a recent night spotted a
small group of people crossing through a low point in the fence and
reported them to the Border Patrol. "It takes you off guard for a second."

The Guard deployment has shed light on a shortage of civilian staff
that has left agents repairing their own vehicles and taking up
welding torches to repair border fences.

In a garage at the Border Patrol station here, a team of Nevada Guard
mechanics strives to repair agency trucks and cars, battered
mercilessly over the jolting terrain, while a group of Guard engineers
from Kentucky drives dump trucks and bulldozers, helping build a road
along the border fence here.

"This is real good training for us," said Specialist Robert Owens of
Olive Hill, Ky., who had imagined the border fence as a chain-link job
but stood stunned to see it as a towering wall of steel plates
salvaged from aircraft carriers. Smugglers regularly try to weld and
drill through it, necessitating regular repairs, said Sean King, a
spokesman for the Border Patrol here.

Staff Sgt. Aric Garza of the Nevada Guard, accustomed to repairing
Humvees, now works on sport utility vehicles, vans, all-terrain
vehicles and other pieces of the Border Patrol fleet that have seen
better days.

"They are really hurting on vehicle maintenance," he said, describing
himself as "happy and motivated" to play even a behind-the-scenes part
in the border mission.

Likewise, Specialist Dwiggins of Neenah, Wis., the de facto greeter at
the Nogales station, smiled when asked if his tasks were what he had
in mind in coming to the border. "Right now it has been this, but I am
sure I will see more," he said. "Anything they need us to do, we'll
do."