Posted on 04/30/2005 5:04:01 PM PDT by madfly
New federal Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff will be in Arizona on Thursday touring the Mexican border and meeting with top state officials.
Chertoff, who took over as homeland security czar for Tom Ridge earlier this year, will be in Douglas to tour border areas and talk about security.
Chertoff will meet with Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano and Republican U.S. Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl during his Arizona visit.
Border security and illegal immigration continues to be a major concern for the state. Arizona is a prime crossing point for illegal immigrants entering the U.S. Those migrants often take low-paying, hard-to-fill service and farming jobs.
But some of those illegals are also straining hospital emergency rooms, state prisons and social service programs. There are also worries that terrorist groups might try to enter the U.S. via the Arizona-Mexico border for a domestic attack.
There are several immigration reform and business-backed guest worker programs afoot in Congress, including from McCain and Arizona U.S. Reps. Jeff Flake and Jim Kolbe.
Conservatives, such as Kyl and U.S. Rep. J.D. Hayworth, are pressing for tougher enforcement of existing immigration laws, including against scofflaw employers. They also want more technology and resources put into the porous Arizona/Mexico border.
Napolitano has been a frequent critic of the Bush administration's handling of border and immigration matters, pressing for more money from the federal government to reimburse states for the cost of housing illegal immigrants in state prisons.
Chertoff's visit will come on the heels of Karl Rove's Friday visit to the Valley. Rove, who is assistant chief of staff and President Bush's top political aide, was in Phoenix hosting a fund raiser for Kyl.
Kyl, a top Bush ally in Congress, could face a challenge next year from state Democratic Party chairman and Valley shopping mall developer Jim Pederson.
ping
ping
And so the Business Journal continues with the proud MSM tradition of singling out conservatives, but never liberals.
Chertoff is probably another globalist fanatic.
I don't know what Chertof is, but I doubt he would be making this trip were it not for the attention the Minutemen have achieved.
this is going to get interesting:
1. illegal immigration
2. illegal drugs
shut off either and their pushers on BOTH sides of the border are going to to ballistic. there are people in the u.s. gov't that are bought by drugs.
si.
And I'm sure that the "top state officials" will give him a very unbiased earful, especially since Napolitano and McCain will be there.
Chertoff, who took over as homeland security czar...
Just how many "czars" does one country need, anyway?
This guy's a day late and quite a few dollars short for the immigration problem...
If the administration wants to regain some of the confidence they have lost, they'd better do something - and fast. Otherwise, whenever we hear the president's name we'll automatically write off anything that follows.
"Just how many "czars" does one country need, anyway?"
Even Russia only needed one. Yes, I detest the term also ...and what ever happened to the term and concept called Civil Defence? It seems to be all but forgoten, another PC casualty.
The most important thing to realize about Czars is that they have no budget authority.
Chertoff will have to define himself now........he is for "Homeland Security" or he is not.
Its that simple.
And build a damn security fence already!
Asking the Border Patrol to do their job without a security fence is like asking carpenters to drive nails with their bare hands.
Anybody who thinks that mayors and police chiefs in small border towns could not possibly be on the take is delusional.
that's right!
money talks.
how many hundreds of billions of dollars go into drugs in this country?
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