At the end of this story is a bit about the problem with the illegal aliens straying onto MCB Yuma. They wander onto bombing ranges in the middle of training and create other havoc for our Marines. I couldn't agree more with Cong. Hunter that the area around Yuma, AZ needs to be one of the first places fortified.

http://nctimes.com/articles/2006/05/..._305_23_06.txt

Schwarzenegger agrees to send California Guard to border

By: MARK WALKER - Staff Writer

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said today he has agreed to send California National Guard troops to the U.S. border with Mexico as soon as next week.

The governor told reporters in Sacramento that despite continuing questions he has about the length of the assignment and reimbursement to the state for the costs it incurs, he believes the need to secure the border is paramount.

"I am prepared to commit the California National Guard troops in support of Border Patrol operations, but it has to be on a temporary basis," Schwarzengger said.


The governor had been balking since President Bush announced last week that he is sending 6,000 National Guard troops to the 1,952-mile long border that stretches across California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.

Schwarzenegger said Wednesday he still wants answers about the length of the Guard mission as well as responses to funding issues.

"We are being told two and a half years," he said, "but if we don't get additonal Border Patrol, will it then be three and half years or six years or what?"

The bottom line in reaching his decision to take part in the effort, the governor said, is security.

"We have found 40 tunnels since 9/11," he said. "I want to secure the borders once and for all and that is why I want to continue putting pressure on the federal government. This is not a political issue, it is a security issue."

In Washington Wednesday morning, Lt. Gen. Steven Blum, the head of the National Guard, told the House Armed Services Committee chaired by U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-El Cajon, that the first troops could appear at the borders as soon as Thursday of next week.

Blum said about 200 soldiers are expected to report along the border of each state. He described the deployment as a contingent of Guard managers who will stay on the job longer than the two- to three-week deployments now expected from regular Guard units.

It was not immediately clear how many of California's 20,000 Guard troops will be called up for the border work.

Back in Washington, Hunter said he wants one of the Guard's first missions to be construction of a fence at the Yuma Marine Corps Air Station in Arizona, where he said up to 25 percent of the facility's training days have to be cancelled because of illegal immigrants straying onto training areas.

"For the safety of all concerned, including the safety of the Marines who are missing the critical training before deployment to the hot combat zones of western Iraq, we must seal the border starting with Yuma," he said.

Contact staff writer Mark Walker at (760) 740-3529 or mlwalker@nctimes.com.