Border Agents Sought for Iraq Detail

While the Border Patrol is under so much pressure to recruit 6,000 new agents to patrol the Mexican border that is resorting to such measures as sponsoring NASCAR vehicles, the State Department is seeking to take some experienced border agents and send them to Iraq. The department has asked contractor DynCorp International to find 120 people with customs and border enforcement experience to go to Iraq to train its officials in how to secure their borders, the Associated Press reports. Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson say the deal "makes no sense." They told President Bush that "we should be focused on supporting our nation's security efforts along the Mexican and Canadian border instead of hampering [U.S. Customs and Border Protection] by sending our best agents to a war zone in Iraq."