$6M for Guard in AZ is backed
Napolitano gets key commitment, but 1,200 troops will leave border
By Howard Fischer
Capitol Media Services
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 10.15.2007

PHOENIX — Arizona could get at least a few additional National Guardsmen along the border, even as the government is proceeding with plans to withdraw another 1,200 of them.

Gov. Janet Napolitano said she has a commitment from Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum, commander of the National Guard Bureau, to support her request for an additional $6 million for that agency's anti-drug efforts in Arizona. That would be on top of the $9.3 million the government now spends to put about 150 National Guardsmen in Southern Arizona to help local law enforcement agencies find people trying to bring illegal drugs into the state.

But Blum's support, by itself, does not produce any money. Napolitano said the final decision is up to Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
The governor's new plea comes after she has been unsuccessful in persuading federal officials to keep Operation Jump Start in place beyond next summer. That program, started last year, put about 6,000 guardsmen on the international border — close to 2,400 of them in Arizona — to take up the slack while the U.S. Border Patrol hired and trained new officers.

About half of them already are gone, with the balance set to be withdrawn by next September. And Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has been unresponsive to Napolitano's repeated pleas to move that date back.

The governor acknowledged that the number of guardsmen who could be funded with an extra $6 million a year wouldn't begin to make up for the withdrawal of 1,200. But she said expanding the anti-drug program might help fill the gap — at least a little.

"The whole goal is to secure that border from a whole bunch of vantage points," Napolitano said.

"Our experience has been if you have drug-trafficking resources, that can help on the immigration side."

She also said the reverse is true: More people looking for those who simply are coming to the United States to work or live helps cut down on the flow of illegal drugs.

Napolitano noted that there already were National Guardsmen in Southern Arizona helping to spot drug runners even before Operation Jump Start began last year.

She said Congress has provided separate funding for anti-drug programs. And some of that money is "discretionary," the governor said, meaning Gates has a lot of leeway in deciding where to use it.

But the funding, rather than increasing, has been declining.
For the last budget year, $9.7 million was allocated for Guard drug-interdiction operations in Arizona. For this year, the figure is $9.3 million.
Operation Jump Start was designed to put National Guardsmen in indirect roles in border protection — ranging from building fences and office work to surveillance — while the Border Patrol hired more officers.

Napolitano has argued — unsuccessfully — for extension of the program, saying that while there are more officers in Southern Arizona's border region, the government still has not gained control of the border.
http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/206328