Army Nat'l Guard Chief to Testify on Why Guard Fled in Face of Armed Incursion

"Over the last three weeks, the decision by National Guard troops to back off and call in federal agents as gunmen approached their post near the Arizona-Mexico border has disturbed advocates for tougher immigration enforcement. While supporters of the decision said the Guard members did as they were supposed to, immigration hard-liners said officials have presented inconsistent details of the incident and questioned the point of having troops on the border if they can’t confront such dangers," the Army Times reports. "Four National Guard soldiers from Tennessee were on the lookout at the border when they spotted six to eight gunmen wearing bulletproof vests. The soldiers contacted Border Patrol agents and pulled back, officials said in summaries released more than a week ago . . . 'We don’t apprehend,' said Maj. Paul Aguirre, a spokesman for the Arizona National Guard. 'We don’t detain. We don’t transport. We don’t do any law enforcement.' Aguirre objected to characterizations of the incident as a retreat, saying the soldiers didn’t run from their post, nor were they overrun."

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