Brewer: Cartels set to breach border


Jan Brewer has been a consistent hawk and critic of the administration’s border policies. | AP Photo

By KEVIN ROBILLARD | 2/22/13 5:07 PM EST

Ariz. Gov. Jan Brewer said Friday that the U.S.’s southern border is not secure, explaining that she’d seen “drug cartels ready to come across in the middle of the night” on a recent helicopter tour of the area.

“Our border is not secure,” Brewer said on Fox News. “Our fences aren’t completed. We don’t have enough people on the ground. I was just down there last week. I was with the National Guard. I was in a Blackhawk. I saw them on the other side, the drug cartels, ready to come across in the middle of the night. It is not secure.”

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Brewer, known for signing legislation targeting illegal immigrants, has been a consistent hawk and critic of the administration’s borders policies. According to Customs and Border Protection, illegal crossings in Arizona are at two-decade lows.

The Republican predicted no immigration reform legislation could pass until people living on the border felt safe.

“The ranchers will tell you, if you sit down and talk to them, that they’re fearful, that the border patrol is too far north,” she said. “They need to get closer to the border because they let them go so far, and then they just sort of blend in, and they’re destroying their land and destroying their cattle, they’re destroying their water. They’re frustrated. And I believe that until the ranchers, law enforcement, is satisfied and they tell us that this border is secured, there’s not going to be a whole lot of movement.”

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/02/brewer-cartels-set-to-breach-border-87963.html