Barack Obama's move is designed to quell an uproar over border security and immigration policy. Guard ordered to Mexican border

In a move to quell growing public anger and mounting fear over illegal immigration along the Southwest border, President Barack Obama is ordering up to 1,200 additional National Guard troops to the border area and requesting an additional $500 million from Congress to slow the flow of migrants.

In addition to the troops, the funding will be used to increase Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security activities at the border with Mexico “to include increased agents, investigators, and prosecutors, as part of a multi-layered effort to target illicit networks trafficking in people, drugs, illegal weapons, and money,” an administration official said Tuesday.


The announcement seemed designed to blunt an amendment in the Senate by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to provide $250 million for deployment of 6,000 National Guard troops to the border. And the White House move was quickly denounced by Republicans, who criticized it as insufficient, and by immigration reform advocates, who accused the White House of engaging in “political theater.”

“It’s simply not enough. We need 6,000,” complained McCain, who is opposed by immigration foe J.D. Hayworth in a GOP primary.

“The guard troops have had a very salutary effect. That’s why we need 6,000 of them,” McCain said in a speech on the Senate floor. He said such troops were needed to head off violent incidents such as one in March where an Arizona rancher was allegedly killed by someone crossing the border illegally.

Just before word of the border aid package emerged Tuesday afternoon, McCain squared off with the president over the issue during the closed-door session at the Capitol. “We need to secure the borders first,” McCain said afterward. “He didn’t agree."

Later Tuesday, the White House released a toughly worded letter directly criticizing McCain’s proposal to dispatch 6,000 troops to the border.

“There is no modern precedent for Congress to direct the president to deploy troops in the manner sought by the Amendment,” National Security Adviser James Jones and Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Adviser John Brennan wrote to Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.)

“It represents unwarranted interference with the Commander-in-Chief’s responsibilities to direct the employment of our Armed Forces and thus infringes on the President’s role in the management of the Total Force," they wrote.

Immigrants’ rights advocates, who have been grumbling for months about lackluster support from the White House for immigration reform legislation, said Obama’s decision to send 1,200 troops amounted to pandering that wouldn’t do much to solve the border area’s problems.

“Deploying additional National Guard without a clear strategy to end arms or drug smuggling is a response to tired talking points,” said Ali Noorani of the National Immigration Forum. “Without true immigration reform, the political theater will continue and billions will continue to be wasted on misguided border security measures.”

“We are outraged,” Pablo Alvarado, director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, said. “Instead of addressing a domestic human rights crisis, the president appears to be caving into extremists who are further shattering and already broken immigration system. Any legitimate concerns about border security cannot be resolved until undocumented people are given full equality in our society. “

Obama aides insisted that the administration remains committed to passing immigration legislation.

“We will also continue to work with Congress to fix our broken immigration system through comprehensive reform, which would provide lasting and dedicated resources by which to secure our borders and make our communities safer,” one official said.

And in his meeting with Senate Republicans, Obama told Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) that the administration would not to be able reform immigration laws without some support from Republican lawmakers.

The White House pledge to add money and troops comes in wake of Arizona’s passage of a tough immigration-related law that triggered warnings from Obama and others that it could result in Latinos legally in the U.S. being racially profiled by police. McCain complained Tuesday that administration officials “badly mischaracterized” the legislation. While Obama has indicated he believes the measure is ill-advised, he said understood the frustration of border residents with the flow of migrants and episodes of serious violence.

In a roundtable discussion with reporters in March, Obama said he did not want to “militarize” the border but that he was considering National Guard deployments and other measures to stem violence spilling over from Mexico.

“I think if one U.S. citizen is killed because of foreign nationals who are engaging in violent crime, that's enough of a concern to do something about it," Obama said.

President George W. Bush sent 6,000 troops to the border in 2006, though almost all of them were eventually withdrawn. That deployment came after border state governors, such as Arizona’s Janet Napolitano, demanded troops to deal with what they said was an emergency caused by illegal immigration. Napolitano is now secretary of Homeland Security, the federal agency that implements immigration policy.

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, a Democrat who represents an Arizona district along the Mexican border, broke the news of Obama’s plan in a statement she released Tuesday afternoon

“The White House is doing the right thing,” said Giffords, who has been asking for federal assistance since an Arizona rancher was killed in March. “Arizonans know that more boots on the ground means a safer and more secure border. Washington heard our message.”