Bush expected to order National Guard troops to defend border

WASHINGTON — President Bush is expected to announce plans Monday to send thousands of National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to help stop illegal immigration.

Details were still being cobbled together Friday night, but administration officials said Bush was considering deploying at least several thousand troops to help beef up border security. The president will outline his plans Monday night in a TV address.

"We are looking at a range of options," a senior administration official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The speech is timed to influence Senate debate next week on legislation to overhaul immigration laws. Bush is intent on winning a comprehensive bill that includes border protection, a new guest-worker program and a means for some of the 11 million to 12 million illegal immigrants already in the United States to gain temporary status as legal workers, with some eventually able to apply for citizenship.

The senior administration official said Bush would propose ways to plug security gaps until thousands of new Border Patrol agents can be hired and trained.

The White House plan is to use National Guard troops, contract workers or local law-enforcement officials in support jobs so that Border Patrol agents can focus on catching illegal immigrants, the official said.

The official stressed that active-duty troops would not be deployed to the border and that the National Guard units could provide surveillance, transportation and construction of infrastructure such as berms, fencing and other border barriers.

The Defense Department also would be directed to use some of its assets — including aircraft, helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles and sophisticated monitoring devices — to enhance surveillance along the nearly 2,000-mile border.

The official disputed speculation that Bush would call for the deployment of 10,000 soldiers.

"The numbers are fluid right now. It will be in the thousands, but not that high," the official said. "There's a lot of different ways they can help without having to do the actual apprehension."

A Pentagon official confirmed the military had been asked to begin drawing up options for the use of National Guard troops. But the official said neither the scope of the mission nor the number of troops had been defined.

Immigration rallies

The debate over immigration has spurred massive national rallies of immigrants complaining that Congress is threatening sanctions against workers who represent a significant share of the U.S. economy, and it has also spurred such protests as one Friday in Washington, D.C., by an anti-immigration group known as the Minuteman Project. Capitol Police intervened as activists from both sides confronted each other with emotional slogans and signs.

According to the National Guard Bureau in Washington, D.C., National Guard troops have been used on the border with Mexico in recent years primarily for anti-drug missions.

The use of troops on the border is a sensitive issue for a variety of reasons.

Federal law prohibits the military from performing law-enforcement duties.

Critics of the idea worry that putting armed troops on the border increases the risk of violent confrontations with heavily armed drug traffickers or with immigrants. Some military units already help with border surveillance.

In 1997, a U.S. Marine patrol assisting with border surveillance near Redford, Texas, shot and killed Ezequiel Hernandez, 18, a goat herder. The Marines said Hernandez fired at them, and the corporal who pulled the trigger wasn't charged with a crime.

For Mexico, the presence of U.S. troops could evoke memories of the U.S. Army's incursions into Mexico from 1916-19, when Gen. John Pershing's troops and other U.S. military units roamed the country in search of Pancho Villa, the Mexican revolutionary and bandit.

Asked for comment, Carolina Diaz, the director of international information for Mexican President Vicente Fox, said: "President Fox ... will wait until Monday to see exactly what President Bush proposes. Until then, there won't be any official comment."

Some U.S. officials questioned the wisdom of giving another assignment to National Guard units that have been stretched thin by repeated deployments to Iraq.

National Guard troops normally serve under the command of state governors, but the president can press them into federal service when needed. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, hundreds of thousands of National Guard personnel have been activated for duty in Iraq, Afghanistan and in homeland-security missions.

Governors unhappy

"The Bush administration and the federal government should put up the money to create the kind of protection that the federal government is responsible to provide, not use our National Guard soldiers that are coming back from Iraq," said California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican.

And New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat, said he was concerned that the administration has not consulted with him or other governors of border states. "While the immediate deployment of troops may create a short-term fix, it creates further problems and concerns regarding our National Guard troops who may be called upon to respond to other emergencies and natural disasters," he said.

Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, called the National Guard proposal "cheap political theater" in an interview with CNN.

But Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, chairman of Senate subcommittees that oversee immigration and border security, said the staffing and equipment that the National Guard could offer are needed immediately.

"The truth is, we must use all available federal assets to secure our borders," Cornyn said.

The Senate is scheduled to begin debate on its version of the immigration bill starting Monday.

The Senate bill would increase border security and establish a guest-worker program allowing participants to work toward citizenship. It would also give most of the nation's illegal immigrants a way to earn citizenship, based on the length of their stay in the United States.

Many House Republicans oppose the Senate bill and support House legislation, approved in December, that focuses solely on border security and immigration-law enforcement. It would require construction of a 700-mile wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and make illegal presence in the United States a felony.

Material from the Los Angeles Times, Dallas Morning News, The Washington Post and the Seattle Times archive is included in this report.