State Governors & The National Guard

[Werewolf]

National Guard units fall under state control unless federalized by presidential order.

Considering all the talk about illegal aliens coming from Mexico into the US and the complaints about same from states bordering Mexico would it be legal for a state governor to call up his NG units to patrol the border and interdict any illegal aliens.

If not why not?
If so why hasn't it been done already? For example I know that Arizona seems to be incensed by the open border and complains regularly to the Feds about it.

 

[Pilgrim]

Money would be one issue. If the governor calls up the Guard, the state has to pay for it.

Another issue would be that the Guard is getting rode pretty hard to support the Iraq "war". For the governor to call up the Guard because they aren't doing anything except sitting around could end up being a political hand grenade for the governor.

Finally, immigration, legal or illegal, is a federal issue. I would think a governor would have to have some assurance the White House isn't going to step in and pee all over the parade before activating the Guard to guard the border.

 

[WT]

I get the impression that the so called illegal immigration problems in Arizona and Texas aren't really problems.

If the Governor is not willing to protect the People, or if the People of those States aren't demanding that the Governor call up the National Guard, then how serious can it be?

 

[George S.]

I assume that illegal border crossings are a Federal issue as that is a federal crime and the federal government has an agency empowered to deal with that issue.

The states do control the NG in peace time so I would think that the NG would have to be called up (federalized) in order to support the Border Patrol for any sort of patrol/interdiction or arrest actions.

Can the states even have specific state laws dealing with illegal border crossing? The US Dept of Immigration and Naturalization is supposed to be the legal authority in dealing with illegal border crossings. If the states can't have laws against illegal crossing activity, then the NG or even the state, county or local law enforcement agencies may not be able to act to stop illegals outside of temporarily holding illegals for the Border Patrol.

 

[CarlS]

It would definitely not be illegal. The state would have to finance the call up without federal help. If the feds didn't like that move, they could strip the Guard of any and all federally issued equipment (which is most of it) and/or federalize the units called up and deploy them.

The bottom line is the Golden Rule, "He who has the gold makes the rules".