Schwarzenegger prepared to send Guard to border

SAN FRANCISCO - California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, initially opposed to President George W Bush's border security plan, said yesterday he was prepared to commit National Guard forces to help police the Mexican frontier.

Fellow Republican Schwarzenegger, who faces re-election in November, had criticised Bush's plan to station up to 6000 National Guard troops along the 3200 kilometre US-Mexico border to curb illegal immigration.

Yet a day before the former movie star is to hold talks with Mexican President Vicente Fox in Sacramento, Schwarzenegger gave his clearest signal yet that he would support Bush's plan to use the Guard in a support role for the US Border Patrol, at least for now.

"I will make it clear to President Fox that I oppose the using of military for law enforcement troops," Schwarzenegger told a news conference in Sacramento.

"However, I am prepared to commit the California National Guard troops in support of border patrol operations." "However, as I say, it has to be on a temporary basis."

Previously, the governor had complained that the state's Guard was overstretched because of the war in Iraq and because of natural disasters at home. He also had called the idea a "Band-Aid solution." Schwarzenegger said he was still awaiting answers from the federal government on the cost and duration of the mission.

"We are supportive of securing the borders and working with the federal government. But we still need to have some questions answered, questions such as who is going to pay for it?" he said. "What is really the length of that operation?

"We are being told it is two and a half years," he continued. "Normally when the military says it is a temporary mission it usually always is ... for a long period of time ..." His communications director later stressed any deployment would not begin until California had received satisfactory answers to questions including who would fund the programme, how long it would last and whether it was part of a comprehensive plan.

"The governor is prepared to take action on the president's proposal, however he will not move forward until the questions he has been asking since day one are answered," Adam Mendelsohn told Reuters. "Will the federal government fully reimburse the state of California for the cost of the mission?"

Even Schwarzenegger's tentative backing sparked criticism from the California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, a Democrat.

"I am saddened by the governor's ill-timed political decision to reverse his initial decision and mobilize California's National Guard to serve on the border," Nunez said in a statement. "Our Guard is stretched too thin already because of the massive deployment to the war in Iraq.

- REUTERS