Official: Thousands of troops will head to border

05/15/2006

WASHINGTON (CNN)—President Bush will order fewer than 10,000 National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to support Border Patrol agents in stopping illegal immigration, a senior administration official said Monday.

President Bush will outline his plan in a televised speech to the nation at 8 p.m. ET, the official said.

The troops—about 3 percent of all National Guard units—will not be involved in apprehending illegal immigrants, the official said. (Watch the debate over using the National Guard—2:36)

Bush’s speech comes as conservative Republicans—many who are running in midterm elections—support new legislation aimed at increasing punishment for people who enter the United States illegally. The issue has prompted nationwide protests by hundreds of thousands of immigration supporters over the past weeks.

White House counselor Dan Bartlett said Monday that the move does not represent “a militarization of the borders,” The Associated Press reported.

Appearing on CBS’s “The Early Show,” Bartlett said Guard forces sent to the area “will not have law enforcement responsibilities or powers. They will be there in a supportive role. ... It’s about a constitutional responsibility to enforce our borders,” AP reported.

Mexican President Vicente Fox said in a written statement Sunday that he has told Bush that he’s worried about a U.S. move to “militarize” the roughly 2,000-mile border, one of the longest unfortified frontiers in the world.

The proposal has drawn criticism from members of both major parties in the United States, with one key Republican senator saying Sunday he has “a lot of questions” about the idea.

But Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist dismissed the concerns, saying the use of National Guard troops is the only short-term solution to stem the flow of illegal immigrants.

“The only thing that we can do to secure our borders right now is to give our states help, and that is best done through the National Guard,” the Tennessee Republican told CNN’s “Late Edition.”

Bush has discussed the “stopgap” proposal to bolster border security with National Guard troops, along with “a lot of [other] ideas,” with members of Congress, national security adviser Stephen Hadley told CNN.

Hadley stressed that it “is not a new” idea.

“It’s not about militarization of the border. It’s about assisting the civilian border patrol in doing their job, providing intelligence, providing support, logistics support and training,” Hadley said.

Under the plan, Pentagon sources have said the federal government will foot the bill for activating several thousand additional National Guard troops to augment security along the border in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.

Key Republican skeptical

Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican, reacted cautiously to the proposal.

“I think we have to be very careful here,” Hagel said on ABC’s “This Week.”

“That’s not the role of our National Guard.”

Hagel, a sponsor of compromise immigration legislation before the Senate, said the U.S. military is already stretched “as thin as we’ve ever seen it in modern times.”

“I’ll listen to the president, but I’ve got a lot of questions,” said Hagel, a Vietnam War combat veteran.

That sentiment echoed Friday’s comments by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, who told CNN that National Guard forces were too “overextended” and “depleted” by service in Iraq and the Gulf Coast to secure the border.

“We have thousands and thousands of guard and reserve troops in Iraq; now we’re going to ask them to go to the border?” the Nevada Democrat said. “I don’t think they are able to do that.”

Frist dismissed Reid’s comment as “whining” and “moaning.”

“We hear it from the American people, we’ve got millions of people coming across that border—first and foremost, secure the border, whatever it takes,” he said.

“Everything else we’ve done has failed. We’ve got to face that.”

Active-duty U.S. troops are barred from domestic law enforcement by a Reconstruction-era law known as Posse Comitatus, but National Guard troops under state control can perform some law enforcement functions.

Frist restated his confidence that an immigration bill proposal will be completed before Memorial Day, May 29.

Sen. Joe Biden, a Delaware Democrat, told ABC, “I think it’s more likely than not” that it will be law by the November midterm elections.

Leaders push ‘comprehensive’ bill

In Sunday’s half-hour telephone call, Fox’s office said Bush told him “what was being analyzed was the administrative and logistical support by the National Guard, not by the Army, to police the border.”

White House spokeswoman Maria Tamburri said Bush told Fox that what his administration is considering “is not a militarization of the border, but support of Border Patrol capabilities on a temporary basis by National Guard personnel.”

“The president reiterated to President Fox his commitment to comprehensive immigration reform,” Tamburri said.

The statement from Fox’s office said both leaders agreed that solving the issue of border control is a joint responsibility that can be resolved “only through integral and comprehensive reform.”

“The two leaders are in agreement in pointing out that the problems of the border are shared tasks and joint responsibilities,” it added.

Bush has stressed that “comprehensive” immigration legislation would include a temporary guest-worker program, and the National Guard proposal could help win over some in his own party who favor a more enforcement-focused approach.