Obama administration could send additional National Guard to south border

June 30, 1:55 PMLA Border and Immigration ExaminerAurelia Fierros

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President Barack Obama could send up to 1,500 National Guard volunteers to the U.S.-Mexico border in an effort to reinforce an existing counter-drug strategy.  Critics have already bashed the plan as they say the levels of violence along the border do not require of unarmed-unpaid volunteers, but of U.S. agencies involved in National Security. 

A senior White House official said to FoxNews that president Obama will discuss with Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano about allotting additional resources, including a stronger National Guard count deployed to the southern border, in a one-year plan.

The program, would call on National Guard volunteers from Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas, to perform surveillance, intelligence analysis, training and aviation support. The aid provided by Guard units would also consist in supplying ground troops to assist at border crossings and with land and air transportation, but they would not operate as law enforcement. The strategy could cost as much as $250 million.

Despite the severity of the violent cartels' war taking place south of the border, some Pentagon officials have expressed a concern that sending more troops would be seen as the militarization of the region. The issue is still being debated.

Obama has promised Mexican President Felipe Calderon to provide additional aid in order to fight the increasing activity of narcotic traffickers, while attorney General Eric Holder and Napolitano recently announced a 2009 counternarcotics strategy promising more resources to fight the Mexican drug cartels, and their cash and weapons smuggling through the U.S. – Mexico border.

The current counter-drug operation along the border, involves around 575 Guard members, but the increasing violence and sophistication of the drug cartels has called for additional efforts to secure the border and crackdown cash and arms traffic. However, the administration officials have communicated they won’t announce or begin any effort until the Mexican elections scheduled for next Sunday take place.