WASHINGTON - Once again the Bush administration is turning to the military to help solve a domestic problem. But instead of hurricane aid or preparations to cope with avian flu, the Pentagon is being asked to possibly provide thousands of National Guard troops to shore up the U.S. border with Mexico, as part of President Bush's effort to gather support for an overhaul of the nation's immigration laws.
According to senior administration officials, Bush is considering plans to use federal funds to pay for National Guard troops deployed along the southern border.
One defense official said military leaders believe the number of troops required could range from 3,500 to perhaps 10,000, depending on the final plan. Another administration official cautioned that the 10,000 figure was too high.
The officials insisted on anonymity since no decision has been announced.
The president was expected to reveal his plans in an address Monday at 8 p.m. EDT. It will be the first time he has used the Oval Office for a domestic policy speech--a gesture intended to underscore the importance he places on the divisive immigration issue.
The key questions Friday were exactly how many National Guard troops might be deployed, for how long and at what cost to federal taxpayers--as well as the problem of possible disruption of upcoming deployments to
Iraq and elsewhere overseas.
This is frickin' insane! So what are those guard troops going to do when they see the illegals crossing the border--shoot them?
National Guard troops were created for basically two reasons. First, they serve as an emergency backup force in case the country is under an attack. The National Guard is basically the equivalent of the old state militias. So when the country needs an emergency reserve of forces during times of war, the National Guard is ready to fill in that need. They are reserve forces trained to fight in a war.
But the National Guard also performs a secondary duty as well. As a state militia, they can also be called up by the governor of the state to perform various duties when the state is faced with an emergency or crisis. So when a state experiences an emergency, such as a national disaster, or civil insurrection, the state can call up National Guard forces to perform whatever labor tasks are needed to cope with this disaster. So when hurricanes strike the Gulf Coast states, the National Guard troops are usually the first on the scene to provide search and rescue, relief work, law enforcement, and transportation of emergency supplies into the region.
The problem here is that I don't see the National Guard as being equipped or trained to do border control. These troops were never trained to perform immigration or border control tasks--they were trained to fight a war, or perform emergency services. I certainly don't see illegal immigrants crossing the border as a part of a larger "war on immigration," nor do I see deploying these troops in response to an emergency crisis. We've had this border control problem with Mexico for decades, and only now is the president calling this issue an emergency? The second problem I have is that our National Guard forces have also been stretched thin with deployments of Guard troops into Iraq and Afghanistan. And now we're told that we may have to deploy 10,000 Guard forces to the Mexican border? How about taking the money we're going to spend having these Guard troops sitting on the border, and instead spend it hiring and training new border control agents? Third, I don't like the idea of militarizing our southern border with Mexico--feels too "Stalinistic" for a country that likes to present itself as a beacon of liberty and freedom. Having U.S. National Guard troops guarding the Mexican border reminds me of the East German army guarding their border along West Germany and Berlin--so when are we going to start placing guard towers with machine guns, mines, and barbed wire along the border? Fourth, you start placing 10,000 National Guard forces on the border with Mexico, how do you think Mexico is going to respond? Do you think Mexico is going to start bringing their military forces up to the border to watch our military forces?
There is a way to solve this problem with illegal immigration, but it requires a multi-policy approach to the issue. To solve this immigration problem requires both reducing the demand for cheap, illegal immigration labor by American companies, and stopping the supply of illegal immigrants by controlling the borders. To reduce the demand for cheap, illegal immigration labor requires the federal government to crack down on companies that hire illegal immigrants in industries such as agriculture, construction, food processing, retail, and hospitality. It requires the federal government to pass both strong immigration labor laws, with strong penalties, and to enforce those immigration laws against companies that violate them. The Bush administration refuses to undertake any task that will reduce the demand for illegal immigration, or harm corporate and business interests. The second approach is certainly to control the border, of which the Bush administration enthusiastically supports. However to control the border, the U.S. needs to take a long term approach in funding and expanding its border control office. The U.S. needs to hire and train more border control agents. What we're getting from the Bush administration is this "feel good" dirty fix of placing military forces on the border. This will not solve the border control problem. Finally, the federal government needs to develop a comprehensive program of amnesty and citizenship for those long-term illegal immigrants already living in the U.S. The immigrants who have resided here in the U.S. for years, have pretty much assimilated themselves into American society. We need to complete the assimilation by developing a program to convert their illegal status to a legal status of residency. This will both allow them to become responsible members of society, and it may help reduce the demand of cheap illegal immigrant labor that American companies would love to exploit.
One final thought on this militarization of the border. Not only is the Bush administration's lame idea of deploying military forces on the US-Mexican border both a "feel good" and quick-and-dirty fix to a complex immigration problem, but it is also a political solution to a policy problem. By deploying National Guard troops on the Mexican border, Bush can then go to his neoconservatives and hard-lined Republicans to claim he's doing something to stop both the flow of illegal immigration into this country, but also to stop the influx of Hispanic and Mexican culture into American cultural society. I mean--we don't want no stinkin' multiculturalism, or illegal Mexicans to degrade the good values of our White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, American culture. Why, The Star Spangled Banner should be sung in English--NOT Spanish! I know this is a racist message, but it is a racist message that appeals to the neo-Nazis, Klu Klux Klan, and other right wing-nut wacko extremists that exist on the extremist wing of the Republican Party. And it is pretty much these extremists that are joining The Minutemen, who are taking up their own vigilante border control positions. These are the folks that will listen to and support Bush's extremist political policy. And if President Bush can get these Guard troops down to the border, he can use this as an election year issue to try to rally the hard-liners to vote Republican during the midterm elections, and to prop up his own falling poll ratings. So this proposal is really designed to address a political issue--not the issue of immigration--during an election year.
Once again, the Bush administration places politics before policy.
