STONEWALLING ONLY HELPS THE COYOTES.

Byline: BRIDGET JOHNSON

THE bickering has begun among California's politicians over President George W. Bush's proposal to use the National Guard to secure the Mexican border.

Last week, state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, threw a fit over deployment: ``As a matter of moral principle and constitutional precedent, we will not be party to budgeting one dime to enable any role for the California National Guard in border monitoring until the Senate immediately and thoroughly reviews the implications of this use of state funds and personnel,'' he wrote to the budget committee chairman.

In other words, stonewall -- a game the Democrat-dominated California Legislature plays very well.

But even Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, with his superhero bipartisanship attempt, is balking at the plan.

And as the argument over Bush's Guard proposal plays out, one can imagine that the stonewalling will encourage a flood of crossers who think it's now or never.

When volunteers of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps of California head south to patrol the border north of Tecate, they stay at a sprawling, remote, wooded campground accessible by bumpy two-lane roads.

Pretty bad luck for a group of illegal immigrants to pop through the brush and stumble on this camp during their stealthy trek north.

But that's exactly what happened during the Minutemen's April watch, when 13 crossers passed by the morning campfire. ``They literally interrupted a Minuteman meeting in progress,'' said leader Tim Donnelly. The Minutemen called the Border Patrol, who reportedly caught three of the bunch.

And that was par for the course, Donnelly told me, for the monthlong watch that began days after the massive pro-immigrant protests were rolled out in the United States.

One Minuteman volunteer was driving a reporter near the front lines in Boulevard, Calif., when a group of eight illegal immigrants mistook her vehicle for their pick-up contact.

On one Sunday evening, three Minutemen out hiking ran first into a group of 11 crossers, then a quarter-mile down the road encountered 15 more. As the Minutemen went up to a lookout point, the illegal immigrants began hurling rocks, making obscene gestures and laughing, claims Donnelly.

Donnelly said that with 350 volunteers in the month of October -- when I dropped in on the operation -- they counted 22 crossers. Throughout April, with 400 to 500 volunteers, they counted 482.

Border Patrol apprehensions generally peak in the spring months. But is the current political landscape encouraging more to cross?

``Could be due to that,'' a San Diego area Border Patrol agent told me. A spokeswoman at the El Centro Border Patrol station -- covering Imperial and Riverside counties -- said their apprehensions are up 23 percent, fiscal year to date as compared with the same period last year, with 43,639 illegal immigrants caught as of Thursday since Oct. 1.

Anecdotal evidence from a civilian border watch group with limited numbers and reach doesn't firmly answer the question, but suggests the illegal crossings may be bolder -- or bigger -- than ever.

Who's going to come across -- and how many -- as a last-ditch attempt before the Guard beefs up the border? Stonewalling legislators are doing their best to buy these illegal immigrants more time.