Thank God that those other states Governor's Were willing to shorten their states of National Guardsmen and send them to assist the Border Patrol here in our State against the Invasion that has been taking place over the last 100 years.
BSRanch...
Schwarzenegger Rejects Bush Request For More Troops
POSTED: 10:08 pm PDT June 23, 2006
UPDATED: 10:39 am PDT June 24, 2006
SACRAMENTO -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this week rejected a request from the Bush administration to send an additional 1,500 National Guard troops to the Mexican border, the governor's office confirmed Friday.
The National Guard Bureau, an arm of the Pentagon, asked for the troops to fill shortfalls for the mission in New Mexico and Arizona, two California National Guard officials told The Associated Press on Friday. But Schwarzenegger said the request would stretch the California guard too thin if an emergency or disaster struck.
Schwarzenegger's communications director, Adam Mendelsohn, said the governor felt sending more troops was an inappropriate burden on the state and would disrupt the guard's training schedule.
The overall deployment for the border mission would remain at 6,000, the guard officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the request had not been announced by the military.
Col. David Baldwin, director of planning and operations for the California National Guard, would not comment when asked about the request from the Bush administration. But he said because of the size of the state's Guard -- which tops 20,000 troops -- California is expected to have an easier time than other border states filling the request.
"We have one of the largest guards in the nation. As a result, getting 1,000 volunteers to go on active duty is not a problem we foresee," Baldwin said.
He said the state already has 250 troops on the border and between 400 and 700 of its promised 1,000 troops on orders to deploy.
"Other states that have smaller national guards are harder-pressed and may have to rely on other states," he said.
One of the Guard officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the Pentagon had specifically asked California to supply troops to other border states who would volunteer for long-term assignments.
National Guard Bureau spokeswoman Reginald Saville in Washington declined to comment and referred questions to the California National Guard.
The revelation that California had been asked to supply long-term forces suggested Bush's plan to rely on voluntary deployments from all 50 states may be running into trouble.
Bush had proposed staffing the deployment largely with troops who would cycle through the southern border states for two-week or three-week assignments. Troops would do those rotations, the administration said, in place of their annually scheduled training exercises.
According to one of the California Guard officials, only a handful of states have signed a document agreeing to do so.
Without help from the other states, Arizona would likely have to deploy nearly a third of its entire force to the border to meet the Bush administration's quota. California, by comparison, has been asked to send less than 5 percent of its force to the border.
Schwarzenegger last month refused to send the troops in place of their annual exercises, which the state must pay a share of. He also refused to deploy the troops until the administration signed a document agreeing to pay 100 percent of the deployment costs, which could top $1.4 billion nationally.
Schwarzenegger held out for 17 days after Bush proposed the deployment -- longer than any other border governor, including Democrat Bill Richardson of New Mexico.
The governor's latest decision was another setback for Bush as he seeks to stop the flow of illegal immigrants into the United States while not alienating Hispanic voters in an election year.
Earlier this week, House Republicans announced an unusual series of summer hearings around the nation on Senate-passed immigration legislation.
The move appeared designed to weaken the chances that Congress will pass the softer Senate immigration bill Bush wants, which calls for tougher border enforcement, penalties against employers who hire illegal immigrants, a new guest worker program and a shot at citizenship for most of the estimated 12 million who are in the country illegally.
The governor's decision was also unlikely to improve relations between Bush and Schwarzenegger, as the two Republicans have clashed on such policy issues as money for California's fragile levees.
Schwarzenegger has also pressured the Bush administration to commit to a firm end date for the border deployment. The governor signed an executive order saying he would not authorize the deployment beyond the end of 2008.
Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
No comments:
Post a Comment