On the same day that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called on President Bush to extend the assignment of California National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border, he criticized the president for not doing more to replace the state's military equipment drained by multiple deployments to Iraq.

The governor, who initially resisted the National Guard's assignment to the border, said Monday that their job was not done because not enough U.S. Border Patrol agents have been hired to secure the border.

Some officials have credited the National Guard troops with helping to reduce illegal immigration through the border with Mexico, but the head of the Border Patrol's union said Monday that the military's contributions may be overstated.

In 2006, Bush ordered 6,000 troops to the border as part of Operation Jump Start to help with administrative and transportation duties, but not law enforcement work.

Those troops also assist the Border Patrol with surveillance, equipment maintenance and road and border fence construction.

The temporary deployment was supposed to help bolster the Border Patrol's ranks while the agency hired 6,000 additional agents. But only half that many have been hired, and the Guard's assignment is set to expire in July.

"We cannot afford to jeopardize the safety and security of our fellow Americans by removing personnel prematurely," the governor said Monday in a statement.

The governor also chided the president for not doing more to replace the guard's depleted equipment. Schwarzenegger, in Washington for a meeting of the National Governors Association, raised the issue in a meeting with Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

"I think it is not fair to the state for the federal government to go into a war situation and then to take from us the equipment," Schwarzenegger told reporters. "Every time our National Guards leave, they take with them equipment but they don't bring it back. So there's only so long they can do that."

Overseas deployment - mostly to Iraq - has worsened equipment shortages afflicting the California National Guard, Lt. Col. Jon Siepmann said.

The Guard has about 200 trucks, Humvees and other items overseas, representing about 5 percent of its total equipment pool. It also is about to lose all 12 of its Chinook helicopters to other states to make up for aircraft those units have sent to war zones, said Siepmann, a Guard spokesman.

The state should get the Chinooks back in a year. Meanwhile, it will rely on Blackhawks and other aircraft, as well as on a compact with other states that make Chinooks available if they're needed.

In 2006, Schwarzenegger balked at the Guard deployment to the border, saying he wanted answers about the length and cost of the mission. But he later agreed to the deployment, saying that stopping illegal immigrants from crossing the border was paramount.

Bill Maile, a spokesman for Schwarzenegger, said there was no contradiction, given his previous concerns, between his request to extend their deployment to the border and his request for help replacing equipment.

"These are two separate issues," Maile said. "The governor urged the president to continue Operation Jump Start to maintain full federal funding until the mission is complete. … The governor is also concerned that our National Guard equipment goes overseas and does not return."

"The governor's actions are consistent with his priority to protect Californians," Maile added.

Border Patrol officials have previously credited the troop deployment with a drop in arrests at the border in 2006. Arrests along the border in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California fell by about 27 percent in late 2006, compared with the same time in 2005, Border Patrol officials said.

However, T.J. Bonner, president of the Border Patrol's union, said Monday that the troops' effect on reducing illegal immigration may have been overblown. He said illegal immigrants initially may have feared crossing the border when troops were deployed, but soon figured out that the troops were not allowed to arrest people.

"It's not that they have not been somewhat helpful, but their actions have not been what the people thought," Bonner said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

- Contact staff writer Edward Sifuentes at (760) 740-3511 or esifuentes@nctimes.com.