Obama to use National Guard to beef up security on border with Mexico

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With its immigration overhaul effort bogged down in Congress, the Obama administration will deploy up to 1,200 National Guard troops to the violence-plagued Mexican border, officials said Tuesday.

News of the expected deployment came just hours after Obama met with GOP senators over lunch and discussed immigration and other issues on his agenda. Republicans last month wrote to the president asking for a larger National Guard deployment along the border to deal with drug-running and the smuggling of people.

The administration will seek $500 million to pay for the Guard and other border-protection measures. The Guard is expected to focus on efforts against drug trafficking, which has made the border region a murder zone. The troops are not expected to do law enforcement.

The last time the Guard was sent to the border was in 2006, when President George W. Bush sent thousands of troops to handle support issues and to free up U.S. Border Patrol agents.

In an afternoon appearance on the Senate floor, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) called for a renewed effort to bring the border region under control. In televised remarks, McCain, who had been a leading proponent of immigration overhaul, argued that troops were needed to prevent the human rights violations carried out by smugglers bringing undocumented workers into the U.S.

The dispatch of federal troops comes as the national spotlight has again turned to immigration issues after Arizona passed a law that gives police the power to stop people they suspect of being undocumented workers.

Liberals have vowed to overturn the law, arguing it is unconstitutional. Conservatives, however, have backed the law as needed to secure the borders.

Obama has pushed immigration issues, but his efforts have been rebuffed in this midterm election year. On Tuesday, he told the Republican lawmakers that he needed their help in getting a sweeping overhaul through the Senate.

Obama has repeatedly argued for better border security, a position backed by Mexico President Felipe Calderon, who recently visited the White House.

But Obama has also called for a program targeting employers of undocumented workers and a plan to give those immigrants a path to citizenship after paying penalties.

-- Michael Muskal

twitter.com/LATimesmuskal

Photo: A U.S. Border Patrol agent stands near the border fence between the United States and Mexico in Nogales, Arizona. Credit: John Moore/Getty Images