Illegals threaten armed forces readiness for combat

Boston.com / News / Nation / Border crossings hinder training at Ariz. bases:
"Since July 2004, the training range has been shut down more than 500 times because of immigrants spotted on the range, causing a loss of more than 1,100 training hours, said Colonel James J. Cooney, the base's commanding officer.
'''That's equivalent to almost 46 days of training. We're getting overrun here,' he said in an interview. 'Any moment we take away from a Marine's experience base could cost him his life in combat.'"

Nearly 40 miles of the USA-Mexico border is occupied by the Marine Corps Air Station at Yuma, Arizona. According to the US government slightly over half of all illegal crossings on the southern border occur in that state and, as this Boston Globe story notes, the Minutemen project operating in eastern Arizona has helped to push more of the illegals toward the west where they threaten MCAS-Yuma as well as the US Army's Yuma Proving Ground and a USAF bombing range near Gila Bend.

MCAS-Yuma detained more than 1,500 illegals on the bombing range in 2004 and over 1,100 in just the first three months of 2005. The story notes that the head of Customs and Border Enforcement has promised that help is on the way - presumably the whopping 200 man increase in border agents the administration has approved. This is what is known as a drop in the bucket.