1,200 guardsmen headed for Mexico border - Marine Corps News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Marine Corps Times

1,200 guardsmen headed for Mexico border

President Obama pledged Tuesday to send 1,200 National Guard troops to the U.S. border with Mexico — but some lawmakers want far more.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said a minimum of 6,000 guardsmen are needed — 3,000 in his state alone — to provide temporary security against drug cartels and human traffickers until more law enforcement personnel can be trained and deployed.

“I appreciate the additional 1,200 being sent,” McCain said, “but it is simply not enough.”

Until now, U.S. troops have been assigned primarily to non-law enforcement jobs, providing technical assistance to state and federal law enforcement officers, but rising crime along the border has resulted in a call for troops to take on more responsibilities.

McCain, for example, is talking about having U.S. troops perform operations and missions.

The Obama White House, like previous administrations, has been reluctant to deploy U.S. troops on what are generally considered law enforcement missions. But Obama said in March that he was considering specific emergency requests because he found it “unacceptable if you’ve got drug gangs crossing our borders and killing U.S. citizens.”

Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, said troops should be deployed to “just seal the border” like they have done in protecting the borders of Iraq and Afghanistan.

“It is time we took care of business here at home because the federal government has been AWOL on the border,” Poe said.

If the government cannot do that, he said, “maybe the IRS shouldn’t collect taxes from Arizona.”

McCain, ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, is facing a tough primary campaign that has included heated discussions about immigration policy and border security.

The 6,000 troops proposed by McCain are based on requests from Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas, he said, and would be available for “immediate deployment to provide additional security, since the situation on the border has greatly deteriorated during the last 18 months.”

McCain’s idea, which could come to a vote later this week as the Senate continues work on HR 4899 — the war supplemental funding bill — would have U.S. troops remain deployed until the defense secretary determines “that the government has achieved operational control of the border,” McCain said.

DISCUSS: U.S.-Mexico border operations