National Guard to miss deadline for border mission

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The Bush administration has been unable to muster even half of the 2,500 National Guardsmen it planned to have on the Mexican border by the end of June.

As of Thursday fewer than 1,000 troops were in place, according to military officials in the four border states of Texas, California, New Mexico and Arizona.

President Bush's plan called for all 50 states to send troops. But only 10 states -- including the four border states -- have signed commitments.

Some state officials have argued that they cannot free up Guardsmen because of flooding in the East, wildfires in the West or the prospect of hurricanes in the South.

Not a priority

"It's not a combat priority. It is a volunteer mission," said Kristine Munn, spokeswoman for the National Guard Bureau, an arm of the Pentagon, "so it's a question of balancing the needs of the Border Patrol with the needs of 54 states and territories, and all those balls roll in different directions."

Bush's plan for stemming illegal immigration by using National Guardsmen in a support role called for 2,500 troops to be on the border by today, and 6,000 by the end of July.

But National Guard officials said Thursday that they probably won't reach the 2,500 target until early to mid-July and won't make the 6,000 deadline, either. Also, they said the number of troops will fluctuate from week to week over the course of the two-year mission.

'Major waves'

"We now anticipate major waves in our deployment. There won't always be 6,000. That will be the maximum," Munn said.

South Carolina's adjutant general said Wednesday he wants to wait until after hurricane season to send 150 Guardsmen.

"South Carolina's hurricane plan requires 1,600 troops to work along the coast during an evacuation and we double that number" to be extra-careful, said South Carolina Guard spokesman Col. Pete Brooks. "If we have a storm like Katrina hit, we'd have every Guard member who's not in Iraq somewhere out on the street."

White House spokesman Tony Snow said earlier this week that reports of problems with the border deployment were "overblown."

Major problems began to appear last week when California, which has already committed to sending 1,000 troops, said it turned down an administration request for 1,500 more to cover expected shortfalls in the numbers sent by Arizona and New Mexico.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's spokesman, Adam Mendelsohn, said that the state is leading all others in contributing troops and that the shortfalls are not California's responsibility.

"The governor is prepared to do whatever it takes to secure California's border," he said, "However, at the start of fire season, we cannot send troops to New Mexico and Arizona and other states when we already have 1,000 troops committed to this."