Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

Bush deploys National Guard to border
By Alejandra Cancino
Independent Florida Alligator (U. Florida)
05/16/2006

(U-WIRE) GAINESVILLE, Fla. — President George W. Bush will send up to 6,000 National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border in a move to strengthen border security, he said on a televised speech to the nation Monday night. "For decades, the United States has not been in complete control of its borders," Bush said from the Oval Office. "As a result, many who want to work in our economy have been able to sneak across our border — and millions have stayed."

Bush said the number of National Guard troops would decrease after a year, when new technology and Border Patrol agents will be ready.

The new technology will include high-tech fences in urban areas, motion sensors, infrared cameras and unmanned aerial vehicles to prevent illegal crossings.

The National Guard deployment was an immediate measure of Bush's immigration reform plan, which he presented with five objectives: Secure U.S. borders, create a temporary worker program, hold employers accountable for the workers they hire, allow illegal immigrants who have resided in the United States for several years to get their citizenship by paying their debts to society and helping newcomers assimilate to the American society by learning English.

University of Florida anthropology professor Allan F. Burns said the president's measure is directed to increase his political support.

Recent polls have shown Bush's popularity rating decreasing due to the war in Iraq.

Burns said the main problem with the president's plan is taking immigration from the civil arena and transferring it to a military one.

'The status of military enemies makes [immigrants] feel less welcome and less sure that the United States is a country that respects human rights," Burns said.

Winie Cantave, director of Unite for Dignity, an immigrant worker's rights organization based in Miami, said that internal policies to secure the borders of the United States are inevitable but that instead of solving problems, this move will create more.

She said the policy would criminalize immigrants and create terror on the border because the National Guard could shoot those who try to cross the border illegally.

"Will they shoot them? I don't know," Contave said. "But if the president feels the need to send the National Guard, [the National Guard] will have to enforce strict rule, and I think — to my understanding — I don't know how they will do that [but by force]."

In his speech, however, Bush assured Americans that the "Guard units will not be involved in direct law enforcement activities."

"That duty will be done by the Border Patrol," he said.

National Guard troops will assist the Border Patrol by operating surveillance systems, analyzing intelligence, installing fences and vehicle barriers, building patrol roads and providing training, Bush said.

In addition, Bush said the United States was not going to militarize its southern border.

But the use of force is not the only concern.

Burns said that members of the National Guard might not be informed on the different policies on immigration. He is worried that immigrants who are waiting for a residency or are in the United States as legal temporary workers might be a target of measures that were not intended for them — such as deportation.

Philip Williams, the chairman of UF's political science department, said that the measure also creates fear among legal immigrants.

Immigrants feel outraged and disgusted at the anti-immigration discourse going on in Congress and the legislation that concludes that immigrants are a threat to the American culture, he said.

Illegal immigrants are even more fearful, Williams said, especially after an increase in round ups of undocumented immigrants following the first demonstrations against a bill passed by the House of Representatives in December. The bill sought to construct more walls along the U.S.- Mexico border, make illegal immigration a felony rather than a civil infraction and criminalize those who help undocumented immigrants.

Williams said that these policies are more about the critics than about immigrants themselves.

Sending National Guard troops to the border would not make a difference; it will only redirect the routes that immigrants use to cross the border, he added.

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