Troops to the Mexican border: Obama to send 1,200
By ERICA WERNER and JACQUES BILLEAUD (AP) – 37 minutes ago
WASHINGTON — Under pressure to take action, President Barack Obama on
Tuesday ordered 1,200 National Guard troops to boost security along the U.S
-Mexico border, pre-empting Republican efforts to force a congressional vote
to send the troops.
Obama will also request $500 million for border protection and law
enforcement activities, according to lawmakers and administration officials.
The president's action comes as chances for comprehensive immigration reform
Obama's long-stated goal, look increasingly dim in this election year.
Obama has been all but compelled to do something since Arizona's passage of
a tough illegal-immigration law thrust the border problem into the public
spotlight.
Indeed, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer credited her signing of the controversial
new law for compelling Obama to act. Signing the law, Brewer said in a
statement, "clearly ignited the talk of action in Washington for the people
of Arizona and other border states."
The National Guard troops will work on intelligence, surveillance and
reconnaissance support, analysis and training, and support efforts to block
drug trafficking. They will temporarily supplement Border Patrol agents
until Customs and Border Protection can recruit and train additional
officers and agents to serve on the border, according to a letter Tuesday
from top administration security officials to Senate Armed Services
Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich.
In 2006, President George W. Bush sent thousands of troops to the border to
perform support duties that tie up immigration agents. But that program has
since ended, and politicians in border states have called for troops to be
sent to curb human and drug smuggling and to deal with Mexico's drug
violence that has been spilling over into the United States.
The White House released the letter signed by national security adviser
James Jones and White House counterterror chief John Brennan not long after
Obama met at the Capitol with Republican senators who pressed him on
immigration issues, including the question of sending troops to the border.
Arizona Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl have been urging such a move, and
Republicans planned to try to require it as an amendment to a pending war
spending bill.
In a speech Tuesday on the Senate floor, McCain said the situation on the U
S.-Mexico border has "greatly deteriorated.
Guard troops to be sent, and he asked for $250 million more to pay for them.
"I appreciate the additional 1,200 being sent ... as well as an additional
$500 million, but it's simply not enough," McCain said.
Democrats were considering countering McCain's amendment with a proposal of
their own after disclosure of the administration plans. The White House wasn
t expected to formally send its spending request to Capitol Hill until after
the Memorial Day recess, said Kenneth Baer, spokesman for the White House
Office of Management and Budget.
A military official said Tuesday that details were still being worked out on
the troops' orders and destinations, adding that the timing of their
deployment was not yet clear. Also undetermined was which units from which
states would deploy.
The Defense Department, which has been jousting with the Homeland Security
Department for the better part of a year over the possible deployment, had
previously expressed concerns that the troops not be used for law
enforcement duties. Pentagon officials are worried about perceptions that
the U.S. was militarizing the border.
The administration'
role, according to the military official, who spoke on condition of
anonymity because the details were still being worked out. Some of the
troops will be armed, but others will not.
Arizona Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords said the situation on the ground
now is different from when Bush deployed the Guard. Arrests have fallen in
the Arizona sector and there've been record drug seizures.
She said the border is more violent and law enforcement is outgunned. She
and other lawmakers want the troops to be armed — they were not in the
previous deployment.
She said the U.S. needs to "spend what it takes" to secure its border with
Mexico.
The Mexican Embassy said Tuesday it hoped the National Guard troops would be
used to fight drug cartels and not enforce immigration laws. Mexico has
traditionally objected to the use of military forces to control undocumented
migration, saying such measures would criminalize migrants and open the way
for potential abuse.
Cecilia Munoz, White House director of intergovernmental affairs, told a
group of Spanish-language reporters Tuesday that the National Guard troops
would not deal directly with migrants.
More than 20,000 Border Patrol agents are deployed now, mostly along the
nation's southern border.
Billeaud reported from Phoenix. Associated Press writers Andrew Taylor,
Suzanne Gamboa, Lolita C. Baldor and Luis Alonso in Washington and Paul
Davenport in Phoenix contributed to this report.
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