Arizona attorney general lauds Obama’s decision to send National Guard
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As the White House announced that another 1,200 National Guard troops would be sent to the Southwest border, Arizona’s Democratic attorney general hailed the move and said he had been calling on the federal government to help the state respond to violence for years.
Atty. Gen. Terry Goddard, who is running for governor, said President Obama’s commitment to send troops and pledge to ask Congress for an extra $500 million indicated the administration recognized that drug and human smuggling were a problem not just for Arizona but for the nation.
“I believe it is an important commitment of national attention to the real problem that we are facing here in Arizona and throughout the Southwest, and that is the violent crime fomented by the criminal drug cartels,” Goddard said at a news conference in downtown Phoenix, flanked by signs that read “Protecting Arizona.”
Goddard said the troops would be “boots on the ground” to help the Border Patrol with communication, coordination and backup. “The Guard is there to allow the Border Patrol to do their job better,” he said.
Goddard added, however, that he would like to see the Guard take more of an active role in stopping border crossers and criminals.
If Congress approves the appropriation, Goddard said, he hoped the money would be spent on improved technology and surveillance systems. “We are losing the technology game,” he said.
Last month, Goddard sent a letter to Obama and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano describing the impact of the cartels on Arizona and saying that “much more must be done to secure our border.”
In the letter, Goddard urged the federal government to strengthen the nation’s laws against illegal entry and to adopt more effective employer sanctions. He also asked for additional Border Patrol agents and more federal help incarcerating illegal immigrants, and said that state and local law enforcement must have sufficient resources to prosecute border-related crimes.
“Because cartel violence knows no boundaries, without a comprehensive plan to shut the cartels down, Arizonans and other Americans along the border will never experience the border security we deserve,” Goddard wrote in the letter, dated April 20.
During Tuesday’s news conference, Goddard said he believed that Arizona’s new immigration law may have played a role in Obama’s commitment to ask Congress for the appropriation.
“It showed how serious Arizona is taking this issue,” he said.
But Goddard said that enhanced troops and technology would better address border crime than SB 1070, which requires that police check the immigration status of those they stop and suspect to be illegal.
He said the law, signed by Republican Gov. Jan Brewer, tries to “address a serious question with the wrong answer.”
“I will take what we can get,” he said. “Clearly we have the focus of the administration, the attention of the administration. Half a billion dollars … is not an inconsequential commitment.”