Posted on 05/01/2010 6:48:04 AM PDT by IbJensen
CNSNews.com) -- Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, while testifying before a Senate panel, said the United States’s southwest border is “as secure now as it has ever been.”
“I say this again as someone who has walked that border,” she said. “I’ve ridden that border. I’ve flown it. I’ve driven it. I know that border I think as well as anyone, and I will tell you it is as secure now as it has ever been.”
Napolitano made that remark in response to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who was questioning her during Tuesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the oversight of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Before being appointed secretary of Homeland Security, Napolitano served as the governor and attorney general of Arizona, where currently an estimated 460,000 illegal immigrants reside. Arizona is also the state with the most illegal border crossings.
Last Friday, Arizona’s Republican Governor Jan Brewer signed into law the nation’s toughest policy against illegal immigration, arguing that it was a response to the federal government’s inaction and misguided immigration policy.
Arizona’s new law grants local police officers the authority to check an individual’s immigration status if there is a reasonable suspicion that the person may be an undocumented immigrant.
The police officer may only check the immigration status if that a person is stopped for a different offense, such as speeding or driving while intoxicated.
When questioning Napolitano during the hearing, Sen. Graham described the Arizona immigration law as “unconstitutional,” adding that the law is the consequence of “an out of control border.”
Graham also said that the United States has “a long way to go” before its borders are secured, something that he further said would pave the way for getting immigration reform done by 2012.
“It is impossible for me and any other serious Democrat to get this body to move forward until we prove to the American people we can secure our borders and, quite frankly Madame secretary, we got a long way to go,” said Graham. “But once we get there, comprehensive reform should come up, will come up, and I believe we can do it by 2012.”
He continued, “If we are smart and we address the big elephant in the room -- and that is that our borders are broken and there is a war going on -- that’s going to affect the future of this issue until we get that solved.”
During the hearing, the secretary of homeland security said that border security has deterred many undocumented immigrants from crossing the border in Arizona.
“Six, seven years ago, the number of illegal apprehensions in Tucson sector of the border was over 600,000, now is 200 [thousand],” said Napolitano.
"The Border Patrol is better staffed than at any point in its history -- more than 20,000 personnel,” she said. “Since 2004, the number of boots on the ground along the southwest border has increased by 80 percent.”
A transcript of the exchange between Sen. Graham and Sec. Napolitano follows below:
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.): “What happened in Arizona is that good people are so afraid of an out of control border that they had to resort to a law that, I think, is unconstitutional. It doesn't represent the best way forward, and it is impossible for me and any other serious Democrat to get this body to move forward until we prove to the American people we can secure our borders and, quite frankly Madame secretary, we’ve got a long way to go. But once we get there, comprehensive reform should come up, will come up, and I believe we can do it by 2012 if we are smart and we address the big elephant in the room -- and that is that our borders are broken and there is a war going on -- that’s going to affect the future of this issue until we get that solved.”
Janet Napolitano: “Senator, may I respond to that.”
Graham: “Please.”
Napolitano: “And I, and I say this as, again, as someone who has walked that border. I’ve ridden that border. I’ve flown it. I’ve driven it. I know that border I think as well as, as anyone – ”
Graham: “Do you think it’s secured?”
Napolitano: “And, and I will tell you it is as secure now as it has ever been.”
Graham: “My question”
Napolitano: “Senator, please, let me answer the question. Every, every marker, every mile post that has been laid down by the Congress in terms of a number of agents, deployment of technology, the construction of fencing and the like has already either been completed or within a hair’s breadth of being completed. And one of the questions I think we need to talk about is whether securing the border is ever going to be reached before the Congress, in the sense of the Congress, or whether that goal post is just going to keep moving? And I also believe that we need to communicate better with the American people all that the Congress has already done along the border. It is a very different border now. Six, seven years ago, the number of illegal apprehensions in Tucson sector of the border was over 600,000, now it is 200 (thousand). Too many, I agree.”
Big fat liar . . . it’s gone way beyond political spin and mindspeak . . .just out and out lies now.
Barbara Boxer and she ought to be subjected to ridicule and derisive laughter! I can’t believe how dumb these two are!
...and she lies terribly. Only retards will believe we are safe. Police are being shot with AK-47’s in the desert? WTF?
Napolitano is not the only sack of crap. Graham does her one better.
...and she lies terribly. Only retards will believe we are safe. Police are being shot with AK-47’s in the desert? WTF?
From my email from Jan Brewer
Just a few days ago, a major drug ring was broken up and 39 Mexican cartel operatives suspected of running 40,000 pounds of marijuana through southern Arizona were indicted. This is merely the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Arizona’s drug trafficking and border violence problem.
Narcotics prosecutions in Arizona have risen 202% in 16 months, however, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearing House, there will be 1,080 prosecutions refused this year in Tucson alone. This represents over one-third of all unprosecuted cases in the Southwest. Until January of 2009, any smugglers carrying under the threshold of 500 pounds were often not prosecuted - a fact that smugglers knew all too well!
When she served as Governor of Arizona, Janet Napolitano sent countless requests to Washington to take action in securing our border. Now, as Secretary of Homeland Security, she claims that the border is “as secure now as it has ever been.” That’s the problem. Our border wasn’t secure when she was governor and it’s not secure now. We’re not buying that “the system worked.” By turning a blind eye, Secretary Napolitano is betraying us in her home state. Napolitano personifies what happens when people go to Washington. Sometimes, they forget who they represent.
As the rhetoric on illegal immigration continues to grow out of control, it’s more important than ever to share the facts on Arizona’s new law. The reality is that Arizona’s new law mirrors federal law, which the federal government is not enforcing. George Will put it in perspective; the federal government’s refusal to control the border is what has caused this problem in the first place.
Hey, Nap. That’s the problem, numb-nuts.
We need it to be more secure than it ever has been. A LOT more secure. Get busy.
The border is as secure as she is sexy!
The US / Mexico border is just as safe as it has ever been.
Just exactly how is that at all news or comforting?
Another ridiculous statement from the queen of the idiots.
True. We have never had adequate border security and don’t now. What has changed is not our woeful lack of security, what has changed is what is at stake. We are now being invaded by narco terrorists and real terrorists, and the feds are deliberately turning a blind eye.
Which is to say not at all. Just the way they like it.
That is what she was supposed to fix!
Janet Incompetano
...WHERE the hell did they dig her up?
She... she... she sees nothink, she hears nothink, she knows nothink!
That and she obviously doesn’t think.
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