It must be an election year.

Obama announced last Tuesday that he will send up to 1,200 National Guard troops to shore up Border Patrol efforts.

Though State Department officials are claiming otherwise, the deployment of the troops is at least in part a response to the Arizona state law enacted last month enabling local police to demand proof of legal residency if a person stopped for another infraction is suspected of being in the country illegally.

State Department officials moved Thursday to separate the move from the focus on immigration. Spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters, "It's not about immigration."

Crowley said the move was "fully consistent with our efforts to do our part to stem, you know, violence, to interdict the flow of dangerous people and dangerous goods — drugs, guns, people."

Arizona's two U.S. senators, John McCain and Jon Kyl, had requested troops on April 19. U.S. Reps. Harry E. Mitchell and Dana Rohrabacher, both California Republicans, filed legislation on May 21 to authorize the deployment.

We don't expect this latest dispatch to be much different than 6,000 Guard troops that President George W. Bush deployed in 2006. Like that deployment, the new group will only perform support duties, the White House said.

They will provide surveillance, build infrastructure and do other behind-the-scenes work. The idea is to help the Border Patrol put more trained agents in the field. Guardsmen will not be allowed to initiate contact with any suspected illegal immigrants or smugglers and will not take the lead in any detentions or seizures.

During Operation Jump Start, which the Bush deployment was called, asset seizures were moderate while apprehensions actually decreased. Federal officials played the numbers as positive steps both ways. They said the seizures proved the extra troops were providing better support and stopping drugs, vehicles and other contraband before it reached the interior United States. At the same time, they touted the drop in apprehensions as proof that the troops were an effective deterrent to illegal crossing.

Most of the 20,000 current Border Patrol agents are stationed along the southern U.S. boundary of nearly 2,000 miles. Nearly 700 miles of fencing has been built along that border.

These measures haven't produced significant improvements, and neither will these additional troops.

Once the election passes, we can expect officials to once again push border issues into the background. The National Guardsmen will dutifully carry out their orders and eventually go home. Then we can all sit and wait for the next major election cycle, when the madness will start again.

REPRINTED FROM THE JACKSONVILLE DAILY NEWS.