Candidates see role for Guard
BOISE – Republican and Democrat rivals vying to become Idaho’s next governor said Monday President Bush’s plan to send thousands of National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexican border is a sign of the federal government’s failure to secure America’s borders.
U.S. Rep. C.L. “Butch” Otter, R-Idaho, and Democrat Jerry Brady, the leading fundraisers in the governor’s race, told the Associated Press in separate interviews they agree the National Guard may have a role to play in helping make up for the federal government’s shortcomings.
Rather than have decisions on a domestic deployment made from Washington, D.C., however, Otter wants Bush to free up federal funding so governors from states including Arizona and New Mexico can make local decisions to keep illegal immigrants out.
“It’s still the governors’ responsibility to mobilize the troops within his or her state,” said Otter, who in December voted for a House bill that would make all illegal immigrants felons and called for erecting a 700-mile border fence. “But because of the federal government’s failure, it’s the federal government’s responsibility to pay for that call-up.”
Brady, who criticized Otter’s support of the House bill he says relies on “intimidation,” favors an alternative being promoted by Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, that allows some of the 12 million illegal immigrants already here to apply for citizenship – if they meet certain requirements, including having been in the country at least two years and having paid taxes.
“If you can’t secure the borders with a civilian force, the National Guard is a short-term solution,” Brady said. “But it’s a small part of a much larger problem. You’ve got to have a comprehensive package of solutions.”
Otter said Bush’s National Guard proposal won’t alter his opposition to amnesty programs.
“Any kind of, ‘Well, you got here, you’ve been here, so we’re going to put you on a course for citizenship,’ I’m not going for that,” he said.
Brady countered that a plan to seal the borders using National Guard troops would have to be coupled with a path to citizenship such as Craig has proposed – in order to prevent the collapse of America’s agricultural economy that now relies on illegal immigrant labor.
Craig told the AP he approached the White House a month ago with a proposal to use the National Guard to help the Border Patrol.
Craig discounted conjecture that Bush’s plan is a ploy to convince congressional hardliners to back a guest-worker program and path to citizenship. “I don’t see it as politics at all,” Craig said. “If we don’t secure the border no reforms will work.”
The governors of Texas and Arizona favor using National Guard troops on the border. In other states, officials including New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat, and Republican California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger have said citizen militias should be held in reserve for state emergencies.
Calling on limited Guard members to assist the Border Patrol won’t be too much of a burden, Craig said.
“We are clearly capable of doing what is needed on the ground and in adjacent states,” he said.