AUGUSTA (AP) – About 300 Maine Army National Guard members will soon be going to Arizona as part of a federal effort to beef up security on the U.S.-Mexico border.

The soldiers will help build roads and fences, work on culverts and install lighting after they are deployed later this month and in April, said Capt. Shanon Cotta, spokesman for the Maine National Guard.

The work is part of President Bush’s Operation Jump Start, a plan to place National Guard troops in non-enforcement support roles from Texas to California. The troops will assist immigration and border agents with administrative and engineering projects, but are not involved in law enforcement activities to crack down on illegal immigration and drug trafficking.

For Maine’s guard units, that means helping build roads and install surveillance systems. Many roads along the border are subject to washouts from rains, making them difficult to patrol, Cotta said.

“We need to maintain the infrastructure on the border so that Immigration and Customs Enforcement has the access and ability to patrol these areas,” Cotta said.

Cotta said about 150 guardsmen from Company A of the 133rd Engineer Battalion will leave March 31 and return on April 20. Another 150 guardsmen, from Company C of the 133rd, will leave April 17 and return May 5.

Additional soldiers from the 133rd and from the 185th Engineer Support Company also will participate, Cotta said. Most of the soldiers will work in Douglas, Ariz., while others will work in San Miguel and Tucson, Ariz.

Many soldiers in engineer units are carpenters, electricians and construction workers, so it works out better for many of them to leave Maine now rather than during their summer months when there is more work in Maine, Cotta said.

Four members of the Maine Air National Guard are now on the southern border, and another three are set to leave in the next week.

, said Maj. Debbie Kelley of the 101st Air Refueling Wing.

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