Is Sylvia Allen’s Plan For The “Arizona Guard” Really A Good Idea?

Republican State Senator Sylvia Allen is pushing her legislation to spend more than $1 million to form a civilian militia of folks to play Border Patrol agents down at the border.Allen has called the training these people would receive "comparable to Sheriff Joe [Arpaio]'s posse," and assures the training will...
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Republican State Senator Sylvia Allen is pushing her legislation to spend more than $1 million to form a civilian militia of folks to play Border Patrol agents down at the border.

Allen has called the training these people would receive “comparable to Sheriff Joe [Arpaio]’s posse,” and assures the training will take place “under the supervision of expert supervisors.”

As if that weren’t reassuring enough, Allen goes on to say, “Their training is not full-blown, across-the-board police officer training. The training is limited and thus provides limited certification.”

That sounds like the long-winded explanation for some dudes down at the border.

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Allen went off on Wednesday in response to Congressman Raul Grijalva’s not-so-shocking criticisms of the bill, likening his immigration stance to “insanity.”

“Since when has Mr. Grijalva EVER been concerned about protecting our borders?” Allen says. “He has fought every effort ever made by this Legislature to stem the flow. In fact, he is proposing to add more wilderness areas along the border to make it even easier for the cartels, since local law enforcement officials cannot enforce the law on federal land.”

Allen went on to claim that the people in the militia would be “mostly previously trained law enforcement and military personnel,” which still leaves the door open for some random dudes to sign up and go illegal-hunting.

That leads us to the question: Is Sylvia Allen’s “Arizona Guard” bill really a good idea?

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