Border Guard plan has hit a roadblock

By Lolita C. Baldor

Associated Press

WASHINGTON - A government plan to use National Guard troops to help stem Mexican drug violence along the Southern border is stymied by disagreements over who will pay for the soldiers and how they would be used.

Ordered by President Obama in June to help secure the border with Mexico, the Pentagon and the Homeland Security Department drafted a $225 million plan to deploy temporarily 1,500 Guard troops to supplement Border Patrol agents.

The agencies are wrangling over how to structure the deployment, but the primary sticking point is the money, senior administration officials say.

The funding stalemate lingers even after Obama renewed his commitment to Mexican officials Monday to reinforce the border and to help Mexico battle the drug cartels. Fierce battles between Mexican law enforcement and the cartels have left as many as 11,000 people dead and fueled concerns about violence spilling into this country.

"The United States will also meet its responsibilities by continuing our efforts to reduce the demand for drugs and continuing to strengthening the security of our shared border," Obama said.

Meanwhile, state leaders are getting antsy. Texas Gov. Rick Perry is still waiting for a response to his request for 1,000 more troops. "It's a federal responsibility but a Texas problem," Perry spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger said.

Early drafts of the Pentagon's plan seek reimbursement for its costs of the program, which is slated to last one year, giving the Border Patrol time to build up its force of agents. The Homeland Security Department, which expects to get roughly $44 billion in its 2010 budget compared with the Pentagon's $636 billion, is also reluctant to bear the costs.

Military officials have also balked at having a highly visible uniformed presence at border crossings. An initial Pentagon draft was rejected by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates because it suggested that Guard troops could be used to help screen commercial vehicles at the border. Defense leaders have insisted the United States avoid any appearance of militarizing the border, and they are opposed to using the soldiers at entry points to openly inspect vehicles.

Defense officials have been uneasy about the Guard plan from the start, insisting the effort be temporary and not tied to any program that could be extended or made permanent. They are also concerned that while the program would be federally funded, Guard members would be under the control of the border states.

Pentagon officials have grumbled that the latest demands come as the United States is still fighting two wars, including an escalation of fighting in Afghanistan, and that Guard units are still needed for battlefield duties

A new draft that drops those border inspections from the list of Guard missions has been prepared, and a senior official said Gates and DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano agreed on that move. Other debates have involved where the soldiers would be stationed and what tasks they would perform.

"The two agencies are resolving a handful of issues that remain," said Paul Stockton, the Pentagon's assistant secretary for homeland defense.

One senior official said a resolution to the matter was still some weeks away. There are about 19,500 border patrol agents, with roughly 17,200 on the Southern border.