Feds to have control of National Guard at borders

Associated Press

SEATTLE — National Guard troops will be deployed by the Pentagon to help protect key border crossings, but they may not be in place until late March because of haggling over roles and jurisdiction.

At a Senate Budget Committee hearing Wednesday in Washington, D.C., Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz promised to try to speed up the mobilization.

In response to questions from Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., Wolfowitz made it clear that the Pentagon is reluctant to deploy the Guard for an extended period.

"We’re going to step up to our piece of it," he said, according to a transcript of the hearing, "but when we look at the type of budget demands on this department, it’s very important that other agencies don’t leave us holding the bag indefinitely.

"I don’t think we should start thinking of the men and women who volunteer to serve their country in uniform as just being a readily available pool of manpower," Wolfowitz added.

At issue has been whether the troops should be deployed under state or federal control. The Pentagon finally decided last week to move them out under federal authority, despite opposition from the National Guard Bureau, members of Congress and others.

The Pentagon still must create a new command structure to oversee the troops and put them through premobilization training, meaning it could be at least another month before they are a visible presence on the Canadian and Mexican borders, said Maj. Gen. Timothy Lowenberg, adjutant general of the Washington National Guard. He has advocated state control over the deployments.

Attorney General John Ashcroft announced in December that Guard troops would be placed at key crossings nationwide. The Border Patrol, Immigration and Naturalization Service and Customs Service all had asked for National Guard support after the Sept. 11 terror attacks in New York and Washington.

Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., called the delay inexcusable and blamed it on bureaucratic red tape.

"Speed is of the essence in securing our northern border," she told a Seattle newspaper. "There is no good reason that it has taken this long to make a decision, and choosing a plan that delays troop placement until late March is simply irresponsible."

Cantwell was among opponents of deploying the troops under full federal control, as were Washington state lawmakers. They said it would take too long and be too costly.

The state Legislature passed a resolution in January asking President Bush and Congress to send troops to the border under Title 32, a provision of the U.S. code that would pay troops from the federal treasury but keep them under the command of governors.

They said putting the troops under state control would allow deployment in days, not months.

They also argued that federal control might violate the 1878 federal Posse Comitatus Act, which bars troops from performing domestic law-enforcement duties such as making arrests and conducting searches.

But the Pentagon concluded last week that border security is a federal mission and that troops should be deployed under Title 10 of the U.S. code, which puts them under federal control.

"The Department of Defense analyzed the mission and believes Title 10 is the best way to accomplish it," Defense Department spokesman Maj. Mike Halbig said Tuesday.

Agreements now must be reached with the Treasury Department, which oversees the Customs Service, and the Department of Justice, which oversees the Border Patrol and the Immigration and Naturalization Service, Halbig said.

He said Guard members would come under the command of the federal agencies to which they are assigned and would operate under their rules.

But Lowenberg, who chairs homeland security for the Adjutant General Association, an organization of National Guard leaders for states and territories, contends that legal questions remain. Those include whether troops under federal control can carry weapons legally at the border.

State Rep. Jeff Morris, D-Anacortes, president of the Pacific Northwest Economic Region, which promotes U.S.-Canadian trade, agreed with Lowenberg.

"Just the reporting structure is onerous with federalizing troops," he said, adding that deploying troops under Title 10 creates several extra layers of bureaucracy.

A federal law passed in December will roughly double the number of agents along the northern border, but hiring and training new agents will take at least a year. The National Guard troops will fill the gap.

Guard members already have been deployed under state control at airports, and they are assisting under federal control with security at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.