National Guard Troops to Be Posted at Border

National Guard troops will be posted “within weeks” at ports of entry in California and three other states along the U. S.-Mexico border in an effort to stem the traffic of drug contraband, a top U. S. Customs Service official said Tuesday.

The action is the result of longtime congressional efforts to bolster military involvement in the fight against drug traffickers.

The guardsmen, who are to be unarmed, will be assigned to commercial ports of entry in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, where they will work alongside customs inspectors assigned to examine the huge volume of commercial cargo entering the United States from Mexico, said Sam Banks, the Customs Service’s assistant commissioner for inspection and control.

No Arrests or Seizures

Customs and National Guard officials, noting legal prohibitions on military involvement in civilian law enforcement, stressed that the guardsmen will simply assist during cargo inspections, and will be prohibited from making arrests or direct seizures. They will not have any role in deterring illegal immigration, authorities said.

“We’re going to get them out there as soon as we can,” Banks said in a telephone interview from Washington. The troops should be posted “within weeks,” Banks added, but he declined to be more specific.

However, a spokesman for the California National Guard said no formal decision has been made to post guardsmen alongside customs inspectors, although he acknowledged that a plan is being considered.

“Could it happen within a month? The answer is yes,” said Maj. Steve Mensik, a spokesman for the Guard in Sacramento. “The probability is that it would take at least a month.”

Banks, however, said most of the arrangements have already been made with Guard officials. Customs inspectors are preparing to train guardsmen for the assignments, he said.

The Guard involvement--coming at a time when a federal proposal to build a border ditch to deter illegal traffic has sparked immense opposition--is likely to generate additional controversy in the region, where talk of “militarization” often draws protests.

Follows 20-Day Test

The planned Guard deployment follows a 20-day test program last August in which 98 Army guardsmen were assigned to ports of entry in Texas, Arizona and Florida. The troops made inspections that resulted in the seizure of 8,435 pounds of marijuana in Texas and 45 pounds of marijuana in Arizona, officials say.

The number of troops to be involved in the current plan will exceed those used in the test program, but the exact number is unknown, Banks said. He said guardsmen will be posted at the port at Otay Mesa, the primary commercial port along the California-Mexico border, and others may be deployed at Calexico and Tecate.

In 1988, according to customs, almost a quarter of a million trucks entered the United States via Otay Mesa, carrying more than $3 billion in cargo.

Drug seizures have been increasing along the border, federal authorities say. In fiscal 1988, customs inspectors in San Diego and Imperial counties seized about 9,500 pounds of cocaine, contrasted with 2,700 pounds in 1987 and 348 pounds in 1986. Marijuana seizures increased from 7.5 tons in 1986 to 23 tons in 1987 and 34 tons in 1988, according to customs figures.

The planned National Guard involvement along the border is part of a broader deployment of guardsmen in the drug-fighting effort nationwide.

Last month, the secretary of defense approved the first phase of a $40-million program aimed at increasing the Guard’s role in supporting civilian drug law enforcement agencies. That money--including $1 million allocated for California--will pay for the Guard exercise along the border, officials said. The funds are part of $300 million appropriated by Congress for a wide-ranging plan of military assistance to local drug enforcement.

Range of Support

Apart from assisting customs inspectors at the border, guardsmen will be involved in a range of anti-drug activities in support of law enforcement in all 50 states, authorities said. Among their responsibilities will be providing radar, aerial photography and equipment, as well as the transportation of law enforcement officials. In addition, some guardsmen may be posted at seaports, where they would also assist customs inspectors.

The use of National Guard troops would appear to be the largest U. S. military deployment along the 1,952-mile border since the era of the Mexican Revolution, which ended in 1917.

The deployment of U. S. military units is an extremely sensitive issue in Mexico, which lost much of its national territory to the United States after the war with Mexico more than a century ago. Military involvement also touches a nerve in U. S.-Mexico border areas, where the free flow of commerce and tourism is of vital economic importance.

“This is another attempt to militarize the border,” said Roberto Martinez, a longtime rights activist in San Diego who works with the American Friends Service Committee, the social action arm of the Quaker Church. “I see it as part of a plan to arm them (the guardsmen) and possibly even have them patrol the border.”

U. S. officials responded, however, that the guardsmen’s role will be strictly circumscribed. Those posted at the border will simply assist in the inspection of truck and train cargo entering the United States, authorities said.

“You’re not going to have the military confronting people at the border,” said Banks, the customs official in Washington. “They’re not going to be dealing with the traveling public or the importing public. They’re mostly going to be dealing with inanimate objects.”

Lt. Col. James Ragan, a spokesman with the National Guard Bureau in Washington, the Guard’s parent body, added: “These people are not to be police officers. They work in support of law enforcement.”

Importers and other industry officials have voiced concern that their goods may be damaged by inexperienced personnel. But customs authorities say the troops will be well trained. “We’re going to be there to oversee the thing,” Banks said.