WSJ: “President Barack Obama will send 1,200 National Guard troops to the Mexican border, an administration official said Tuesday, following calls from politicians in both parties to step up the fight against illegal immigration and border violence.”

Here’s the rub: “The troops would not act in a law-enforcement capacity, but would provide intelligence, surveillance and training.”

All code for making sure a couple of Ramoses and Compeans don’t shoot an invader in the bottom. What will ensue will be the prosecution of the Joe Arpaios of the south-west.

These guards will be instructed to act as glorified traffic cops—properly directing the flood of people into the US—who’re on the border so that Barack (didn’t Bush pull a similar stunt?) can say, “Under my administration, enforcement on the Mexican border peeked.”

The presence of a National Guard crippled by protocol and PC laws designed to protect trespassers—this is nothing more than a political ploy.

What of ‘Posse Comitatus‘? I’m not sure.

Update I (May 26): I wish readers (okay, Huggs) would fight the blind spot they have about Bush, who would wrestle a crocodile for an illegal alien, provided the latter was of low character and criminally inclined, of course.

See the three amigos in “A Vacation From Reality.” While in reading mode, I recommend “José Medellín’s Dead; Cue The Mariachi Band.”

Update II: The Bush record is similar, so you know that sending the Guards to pose on the border and dreaming up a “comprehensive approach to illegal immigration” are quite compatible.

The NYT: From 2006 to 2008, President George W. Bush made a larger deployment of Guard troops under a program called Operation Jump Start. At its peak, 6,000 Guard troops at the border helped build roads and fences in addition to backing up law enforcement officers.
Those Guard troops contributed to the arrest of more than 162,000 illegal immigrants, the rescue of 100 people stranded in the desert and the seizure of $69,000 in cash and 305,000 pounds of illicit drugs.
The soldiers will not directly make arrests of border crossers and smugglers, something they are not trained to do.

The Washington Times seconds the case made on this blog:

The decision puts Mr. Obama squarely in the footsteps of his predecessor, President George W. Bush, who in 2006, just as the Senate was beginning an immigration overhaul debate, announced his own deployment of National Guard forces to the border.
Mr. Bush sent National Guard troops to build fencing and other infrastructure and help the U.S. Border Patrol with surveillance and support tasks, though they were not allowed to enforce immigration laws. Mr. Bush called the troops a temporary measure to fill a gap while he boosted the number of Border Patrol agents.
But the troops faced so many restrictions on their activities, including carrying weapons, that some Border Patrol agents said they found themselves assigned to what they called “nanny patrol,” which amounted to protecting the National Guard troops.