By SUSANNE M. SCHAFER
The Associated Press
Thursday, June 29, 2006; 12:40 AM

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- South Carolina's adjutant general said Wednesday he wants to wait until after hurricane season to send 150 National Guard troops to work along the U.S.-Mexico border.

President Bush has called for up to 6,000 National Guard members to support the U.S. Border Patrol so the agents can focus on illegal immigration enforcement.

"Keep your fingers crossed that I won't have to send those units to the border," said State Adjutant General Stan Spears.

South Carolina has fewer than 600 Guard troops _ out of nearly 10,000 _ deployed outside the state at this time, but should a Category 5 hurricane hit the state, every single Guard member could expect to be called up, said Guard spokesman Col. Pete Brooks.

"South Carolina's hurricane plan requires 1,600 troops to work along the coast during an evacuation and we double that number" to be extra-careful, Brooks said. "If we have a storm like Katrina hit, we'd have every Guard member who's not in Iraq somewhere out on the street."

Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, told National Guard leaders last week that hurricane-prone states wouldn't be asked to send troops to the border mission while storms threaten.

The Guard is expected to assist Border Patrol agents in the field by monitoring video surveillance of borders and providing helicopters to find illegal immigrants. Bilingual troops could act as translators.