By Mark Walker6:39 p.m.Feb. 4, 2013
utsandiego.com


Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano in San Diego. — K.C. Alfred

SAN DIEGO — Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Monday that the San Diego border with Mexico is secure but not impregnable.

“I believe the border is secure,” Napolitano said following an aerial tour of the international line and a meeting with Mayor Bob Filner and law enforcement officials. “I believe the border is a safe border.”

Others noted that illegal crossings remain more of a problem in some areas than others.

Napolitano cited a sharp decline in apprehensions for attempted illegal crossings and increases in the capture of contraband currency, illicit drugs and human traffickers as evidence that measures used in San Diego are working.

The secretary added that there is no way to declare the border free from illegal crossings.

“That would be unrealistic,” she said during a news conference at the U.S. Coast Guard Station on Harbor Drive. “No one using common sense will say you can eliminate all crime, all illegal immigration.”

Napolitano’s visit came one week after a President Barack Obama and a bipartisan group of senators offered an outline of an immigration package that would create a path to citizenship.

She said the time has come to address the nation’s roughly 11 million unauthorized immigrants, including roughly 2.5 million in California. As part of that, her department will continue to press Congress for additional money to enhance security, including hiring more agents and employing more electronic and aerial surveillance measures, she said.

“But we need immigration reform to go along with this,” she said. “It’s imperative that we look at the immigration system as a whole and the overhaul of immigration laws cannot wait any longer. Our immigration system has been broken for far too long and it’s time to fix it.”

The Senate outline calls for a commission led by border state governors to help determine when it is secure. On Sunday, Senate Democrats said the ultimate decision on that precursor to initiating a pathway to citizenship would be left with the Homeland Security chief.

Peter Nunez, a former U.S. attorney in San Diego and advocate for greater border enforcement, said that as apprehensions and illegal crossing went down here, they increased in Arizona.

“It depends on how you define it,” he said of Napolitano’s assessment of border security. “Even if we say the border is hermetically sealed here, what’s going on along the rest of it.?"

Filner praised the former Arizona governor for her understanding of border issues. “She is one federal officials who gets it when most do not,” he said. “

Filner is pressing Washington officials to speed up lane construction at the ports of entry.

“The wait times are the critical thing we have to solve as a region and she understands that,” he said.

Napolitano said she’s aware of the wait-time issue. “Know that, got that,” she said.

Since she worked on immigration issues starting in the early 1990s, Napolitano said there’s been a sea change in border security through the hiring of additional agents and technological measures.

“What we have seen between now and 20 years is like the difference between a rocket ship and a horse and buggy,” she said, citing

Napolitano: San Diego border