PHOENIX, Ariz. (KGUN) — Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs is stepping into the border crisis and stepping up the amount of state resources committed to border enforcement and management.
In an announcement midday Friday, Hobbs said she is creating a Border Security Office with a $2 million budget to ensure effective use of local, state and Federal assets for border security.
She said if the Biden Administration does not reopen the Lukeville Port of Entry, she will apply another $5 million to mobilize the Arizona National Guard to support state and local law enforcement along the border, including for fentanyl interdiction.
Hobbs sent President Biden a letter asking more than $500 million in reimbursements for state border operations resulting from what she calls “the Federal government’s failure to secure the Arizona border.”
Hobbs is scheduled to visit Lukeville Saturday.
National Guardsmen have been called in to work on the border before, but U.S. law says they can not handle law enforcement functions like making arrests.
They can be involved in other work like transportation and surveillance.
Two Star General Michael McGuire retired as the ranking officer in Arizona’s National Guard.
Part of the drive to have Guardsmen help at the border connects to CBP’s decision to close the port of entry at Lukeville.
While Guardsmen could free up Border Patrol and Customs to return to their usual work, Guardsmen can not re-open the port by themselves
“I think the misnomer is there's this idea that the guard could go down and open the port on our own. That's not a real thing. It's a Federal duty, the National Guard, even any part of the active duty military, even if the President ordered it is not allowed under Posse Comitatus is not allowed in the contiguous U.S.”
General McGuire says even if the Arizona National Guard stays under command of Governor Hobbs, it’s important for the governor to convince the Federal Government to cover the cost of Guardsmens’ pay. He says if the Governor deployed all eight thousand Arizona Guardsmen it would cost the state one-point-eight billion dollars a year.