The Arizona governor
could deploy an armed, volunteer militia to
respond to natural disasters and patrol the
Arizona-Mexico border for illegal immigrants
and drug-traffickers under a legislative
proposal to fund a state guard.
The state would pay $1.9 million to activate
the Arizona State Guard, created last year
through an executive order signed by
Republican Gov. Jan Brewer.
The bill calls for a one-time cost of
$500,000 from the general fund and an
additional $1.4 million each year from a
gang task-force fund. While there’s an
anticipated budget surplus, lawmakers must
deal with long-term debt and the May 2013
expiration of the 1-cent-per-dollar
sales-tax increase, so it is unclear how
much support this bill would have.
Arizona would join 23 other states and
territories with active guards, but experts
say the state would stand alone if its
militia was focused on border enforcement
and “combating international criminal
activity.”
Most state guards serve as auxiliaries to
state National Guards and assist in disaster
preparation and response, recovery efforts
and protection of infrastructure. State
guards typically augment National Guards, a
federally recognized reserve military force.
Most often, state governors control the
state militia, and the state’s senior
military commander directly oversees them.
In some instances, state-guard members have
access to weapons, which are otherwise
locked away in armories for safekeeping, one
border expert said.
Senate Bill 1083, which would establish a
funding source for the guard, has passed
through the Senate Border Security,
Federalism and States Sovereignty Committee
mostly on party lines. The bill, sponsored
by Sen. Sylvia Allen, R-Snowflake, now moves
to the Senate Appropriations Committee,
which is scheduled to hear it Tuesday.
Last year, Brewer signed into law
legislation to establish a state guard.
Brewer generally does not comment on bills
before they reach her desk, and she has not
indicated whether she supports the
legislation funding the guard. Allen said
the governor was non-committal when they
discussed the measure.
“Something has to be done about the
situation at the border — people are being
terrorized,” Allen told The Republic. “There
are plenty of ex-law-enforcement officers
who could do this. I don’t have any illusion
that we can solve our border problem, but
this would help.”
The proposed legislation comes at a time
when Border Patrol apprehensions, a measure
of illegal-immigration traffic, have fallen
by 53 percent since 2008 and are now at
one-fifth of what they were at their peak in
2000, according to figures by the U.S.
Department of Homeland Security.
The proposal also comes when there is a
significant presence of Border Patrol agents
assigned to the Southwest border: In August,
there were 18,152 agents assigned to the
border, more than twice the 8,580 in 2000,
according to statistics from the Department
of Homeland Security. Of those, about 4,000
are stationed in Arizona, with about 3,200
in the Tucson Sector and the remaining 800
assigned to the Yuma Sector, which covers
western Arizona and parts of eastern
California.
Allen estimates the proposed legislation
would fund 250 to 300 state militia members,
who would voluntarily participate and
receive $100 daily stipends while on duty.
The $1.9 million would cover training,
maintenance and operations, including
insurance. The legislation does not specify
how much uniforms and firearms would cost or
how they would be paid.
When called into duty, members of the state
militia could detain and arrest suspects
until a law-enforcement agency takes over
and would have immunity for acts that occur
while on duty — similar to immunity granted
to police and other law enforcement that
prevents prosecution while doing their jobs.
The legislation also would allow the state
guard to seize assets in instances where it
cooperates with state or local
law-enforcement agencies.
Maj. Gen. Hugo Salazar, adjutant general of
the Arizona National Guard, said he doesn’t
have an official position on the legislation
but added he has some liability and training
concerns. He reports to the governor and
would oversee such a civilian militia.
“I do have concerns about weapons,” he
recently told the Senate border-security
committee, pointing out that no other state
militia allows members to carry weapons.
“And so, as an objective individual, I ask
myself, ‘Is there a reason why?’ There’s a
lot of things that have to occur before I
feel comfortable putting a weapon in a
volunteer’s hand.”
Supporters of the legislation say a guard
could help budget-strapped sheriffs along
the border enforce human- and drug-smuggling
laws. They said a state militia would cost
far less than calling in the National Guard
for assistance during disasters and that the
state has the responsibility to step up
border enforcement since the federal
government has failed to secure the border
and prevent human, drug and weapon
trafficking.
It cost the federal government $1.4 billion
to station the National Guard at the
Southwestern border two different times
dating to 2006, according to federal
reports.
“I’m not sure how much longer we just sit
around and do nothing,” said Sen. Steve
Smith, R-Maricopa, who voted in favor of the
bill.
Brewer regularly criticizes the federal
government for its inaction on the border,
and in December, she denounced the Obama
administration’s plan to draw down the
National Guard troops on the border. This
legislation would essentially allow her to
deploy a state militia as she sees fit.
But critics raise questions about how the
state militia would recruit members, how the
state would vet members, and potential legal
ramifications of authorizing a volunteer to
carry — and use — weapons.
“All this does is it legitimizes the
Minutemen-type model of enforcement,” Sen.
Steve Gallardo, D-Phoenix, said, referring
to the civilian border-patrol movement that
took root in Arizona around 2005. “It’s
crazy. Absolutely crazy.”
Border-security experts said state guards
have provided important resources to the
nation — especially when responding to
natural disasters. Over time, said Jessica
Zuckerman, a research assistant with the
conservative Heritage Foundation, some state
guards have tailored their expertise —
Texas, for example, is known for its medical
units.
Michael Lytle, a border expert at the
University of Texas at Brownsville, said
Arizona would be the first to test
stationing a state guard at the border.
“If it’s to man observation posts, that’s
one thing, but if they’re going to arrest
people, that’s something entirely
different,” he said. “I just don’t know any
place where state guards perform that kind
of mission — you’ve got kind of an
unprecedented situation out there.”
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