Officials Ask to Arm Guardsmen

A group of 58 U.S. senators is asking the Bush administration to approve arming National Guard troops assigned to security detail along the nation’s borders.

More than 1,700 National Guardsmen have been called up to staff crossings in states along the Canadian and Mexican borders. While their counterparts who were called up to help protect the nation’s airports are allowed to carry firearms, those helping protect the borders are not.

In a letter released Friday, congressional members said the guardsmen could be defenseless targets without firearms.

“Guard forces need the flexibility to carry out the mission, including the ability to protect themselves in the event of danger,” the letter says.

National Guardsmen are working alongside armed officers from the U.S. Customs Service and the Immigration and Naturalization Service. The soldiers do not have law-enforcement authority, but act in a supporting role, searching cars and handling traffic.

In the letter to Bush, the senators said that previous call-ups of the National Guard to carry out border duties, including drug interdiction efforts, allowed troops to carry firearms for protection.

A number of the adjutant generals who oversee the state National Guards also have been lobbying to arm their soldiers.

“Our soldiers should be armed,” said Lt. Col. Joe Foster, a spokesman for the Montana National Guard, which has deployed members to work at the state’s border crossings with Canada.

However, the Defense Department has said it doesn’t want guardsmen to carry weapons because it wants to avoid military deployments along the border.

“We didn’t want to give the impression we were militarizing the border,” said Army Maj. Mike Whetston, of the Defense Department.

Foster said Maj. Gen. John E. Prendergast, commander of Montana’s National Guard, has appealed to the administration to arm the guardsmen since the deployment order came down in December. Soldiers began deploying to the borders this week.

“The bottom line is that in order to best protect themselves, and if necessary, the citizenry, our solders need to be armed,” Foster said. “The reason we’re up there is for security issues. Being armed is a natural fit.”

Of the 157 border crossings, 124 are along the 4,000-mile border with Canada and 33 are along the 2,000-mile line with Mexico. Last year, about 100 million people entered the United States from Canada, and 314 million from Mexico.

The Guard deployment came after concern over border security heightened in the aftermath of Sept. 11.

But problems at the border crossings had been highlighted earlier. In 1999, Ahmed Ressam was arrested trying to enter Washington state from Canada with an explosive-laden car. He was convicted in Los Angeles of smuggling, terrorist conspiracy and other charges stemming from what investigators said was a plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport.