SACRAMENTO — Pressure built Thursday within Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's own party for him to follow the example of Democratic governors in New Mexico and Arizona and declare a state of emergency along the Mexican border.
Even though Schwarzenegger insists that border conditions aren't dire enough to justify such a declaration -- and that California law would not permit it anyway -- four Republican lawmakers announced plans to introduce legislation that would give the governor explicit authority to declare an emergency because of illegal immigration.
"There is no question the problem of illegal immigration has reached emergency proportions," said one of the lawmakers, Assemblyman Ray Haynes, whose Murrieta district covers parts of Riverside and San Diego counties. He said migrant trafficking often makes people in his district fear for their lives.
Earlier this month, emergency declarations by Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson freed up more than $2 million to deal with human trafficking, drug smuggling, kidnapping, murder and destruction of property along their borders.
Since then, bipartisan pressure has been building in California for Schwarzenegger to bolster order efforts with money diverted from other state projects.
Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles) had urged Schwarzenegger last week to declare a state of emergency in Imperial and San Diego counties in order to leverage more state and federal money to deal with border troubles. Nunez met Thursday with Mexican President Vicente Fox in Mexico City to discuss illegal immigration, among other issues.
Schwarzenegger responded to Nunez on Wednesday with a letter, calling it "incorrect" to think that an emergency declaration would remedy the effects of illegal immigration.
"A declaration of emergency is not authorized in the absence of conditions of extreme peril to the safety of persons or property beyond the means of local government to address," wrote Schwarzenegger. "Despite the dangers which exist to those who seek to cross the border illegally ... the current situation in California does not rise to this level."
At a workers' compensation event Thursday in San Jose, Schwarzenegger said New Mexico and Arizona have worse crime -- including killings, drug smuggling and human trafficking -- than California suffers along its Mexican border.
