Janet Napolitano touts federal border response
Says governors free to deploy more troops

by Erin Kelly - Sept. 18, 2010 12:00 AM
Republic Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - Southwest governors who denounce as inadequate the Obama administration's ongoing deployment of 1,200 National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border can always call out more troops at their states' expense, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Friday.

Napolitano, the former Democratic governor of Arizona, made the comment in response to a question about Texas Republican Gov. Rick Perry's continuing demand that he needs at least 1,000 National Guard troops at the Texas-Mexico border alone.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, also has complained that the 1,200 troops paid for by the federal government are insufficient, despite the fact that nearly half of them are going to the Arizona-Mexico border.

Of the 1,200 troops, Arizona will get 524, Texas will get 250, California will get 224 and New Mexico will get 72, with the remainder serving in supervisory or support positions.

"He (Perry) is governor, he can call (the Texas National Guard) out," Napolitano said at a lunch meeting with reporters hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.

However, Napolitano quickly added that she is not advocating that Perry or any other governor actually do that. The governors have said they do not have enough money in their state budgets to pay for more troops without federal aid.

"The National Guard is not meant to be a substitute for civilian law enforcement," Napolitano said.

She touted the $600 million bill recently approved by Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama that will pay for 1,000 new Border Patrol agents, 250 new Customs and Border Protection officers, and two unmanned aerial drones to provide surveillance on the U.S. side of the border.

The Border Patrol is better staffed than at any time in its 85-year history, having doubled the number of agents from approximately 10,000 in 2004 to more than 20,000 today, DHS officials said.

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