(Herald Review) Gov. Katie Hobbs said she’s willing to have members of the Arizona National Guard on the border to help deal with migrants — and even reopen the Lukeville port of entry — but not on her dime.
And she wants the Biden administration to reimburse Arizona $512 million for what she claims the state has spent on border operations, ranging from law enforcement to her busing migrants elsewhere in the country “due to the federal government’s failure to secure our border.’’
Hobbs provided no breakdown on how she came up with that figure. But what it does include is financing busing that has crossed the border to other states, a program that has moved more than 26,000 out of Arizona at a cost of $5.7 million.
Hobbs said there is a simple solution.
In a letter Friday to President Joe Biden, the governor noted there are 243 state Guard troops already on federal active duty in Southern Arizona. She wants the president to reassign them to Lukeville where they would operate the border crossing.
Customs and Border Protection shuttered the port of entry on Monday to redirect the staff there to help the Border Patrol process the flood of migrants asking for asylum.
The governor’s desire to reopen the port with Arizona National Guard soldiers is a departure from statements she made less than a week ago when she dismissed a request by Sen. T.J. Shope, R-Coolidge, to have the state run the port of entry. She said at the time the solution is for the federal government to “do its job and secure the border,’’ saying if Washington provided more resources to hire agents, there would be no need for the closure.
And now?
“The safety of our citizens and the prosperity of our economy are intertwined,’’ Hobbs wrote to Biden.
“The recent decision to close the Lukeville port of entry has led to an unmitigated humanitarian crisis in the area and has put Arizona’s safety and commerce at risk,’’ the governor said. “Our pots of entry are essential to our state’s economy, and it is vital that they be properly staffed and resourced to continue to fuel economic growth in the state.”
What’s different, said gubernatorial press aide Christian Slater, is who picks up the tab.
“The Biden administration says that they need manpower because they don’t have enough manpower to both process migrants and keep the port of entry open,’’ he said. “So we are offering manpower to reopen the port of entry.’’
Only thing is, those soldiers that Hobbs is offering the president are not under her control but are under the command of the Department of Defense.
“We are asking him to do it,’’ Slater responded.
And then there’s the fact that those 243 soldiers activated under federal control already are performing other border-related functions. There was no immediate response from U.S. Northern Command on what those soldiers are now doing.
All that also assumes that the soldiers actually could operate the port of entry.
That includes the ability to identify the documents needed to enter the country and what kinds of items can be brought here legally, all of which are spelled out in federal laws and rules. But Slater said they would be operating under the “supervision’’ of federal officials.
That, however, presumes that CBP has staff available: The whole purpose of the closure was to free up those operating the crossing — 23 according to one report — to deal with migrants. Slater brushed aside that concern.
“You don’t need 23 people to supervise,’’ he said.
There is, however, precedent for state deployment.
Her predecessor, Republican Doug Ducey, sent Guard troops to the border in 2018 to assist federal agents. The soldiers were assigned duties like helping with secondary inspections at commercial border crossings, doing things like operating X-ray machines.
