Thread: Arizona Governor Gets Few Results From Meeting With Obama

FOXNews.com
June 03, 2010
Arizona Governor Gets Few Results From Meeting With Obama

President Obama will dispatch an official to sit down with Jan Brewer in the next month but the Arizona governor said Thursday she got few other results from her meeting with the commander-in-chief, including any details about where 1,200 National Guard troops will be deployed along the U.S.-Mexico border.

President Obama will dispatch an official to sit down with Jan Brewer in the next month but the Arizona governor said Thursday she got few other results from her meeting with the commander-in-chief, including any details about where 1,200 National Guard troops will be deployed along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Brewer met with Obama to discuss the state's new law clamping down on illegal immigrants that the White House opposes. The meeting comes as Justice Department officials consider suing the state in a bid to block the law, which makes it a state crime to be in the country illegally.

Obama has blasted the law, which takes effect July 29, as "misguided" and warned that it could violate civil rights and lead to racial profiling.

During a brief news conference on the White House driveway following her meeting with the president, Brewer described the meeting as "cordial," but the potential lawsuit wasn't discussed.

"That was kind of over, brushed over a little bit," she said.

When asked if she thinks the president has read the law, Brewer only smiled.

In a written statement, the White House said Obama reiterated his concern over the law and how it could lead to a patchwork of different state immigration regulations that would interfere with the federal government's response.

"The president urged Gov. Brewer to be his partner in working in a bipartisan manner on comprehensive immigration reform to implement the type of smart, sensible, and effective solutions the American people expect and deserve from their federal government," the White House said.

Brewer said she assumes in two weeks, she'll know how many National Guard troops will be headed to Arizona.

"People from the staff are coming out to Arizona to brief us on what their projections are going to be in regards to the 1,200 National Guard and the $500 million that he has indicated that he's going to send down there. And we're going to see how that's going to get distributed. He assured us that the majority of resources will be coming to Arizona -- yet to be figured out," she said.

The governor said she is encouraged there will be "much better dialogue between the federal government and the state of Arizona" on border security and immigration reform.

"I hope that's not wishful thinking but positive thinking," she said.

Citing scheduling issues, Obama initially declined to meet with Brewer this week while she is in Washington for a Council of Governors meeting. But as criticism grew over Obama's seeming snub, he made time on his calendar.

While Obama is pushing for a multi-layered approach to immigration, Brewer is advocating for a policy that will secure the border first. On Thursday, neither side backed down from their approach.

"I feel very confident about what we've done in the past is the right thing to do," Brewer said. "We're protecting America. We need to secure our border."

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the best way to tackle illegal immigration is on the federal level. He added that Sen. John McCain was "very instrumental" in getting immigration overhaul legislation near passage in 2007.

"I doubt we'll get there without him doing what he did in those years," he said.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/06 ... ing-obama/

Jun 3, 2010 6:26 pm US/Eastern
Obama, Arizona Gov. Brewer Discuss Immigration
WASHINGTON (AP) ―

Ariz. Gov. Jan Brewer talks to members of the news media outside the West Wing at the White House after meeting with President Barack Obama June 3, 2010 in Washington.

Facing off over illegal immigration, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer told President Barack Obama that Americans "want our border secured" and called Thursday for completion of a separating fence. Obama underscored his objections that the tough immigration law she signed is discriminatory.

Meeting in the Oval Office, Obama said Arizona's law and similar efforts by more than 20 states would interfere with the federal government's responsibility to set and enforce immigration policy.

Neither side appeared to give ground on the contentious issue although both talked about seeking a bipartisan solution. Obama urged her to "be his partner" in working toward a comprehensive overhaul of the nation's badly fractured immigration system.

The unusual meeting between the president and the governor was a byprouct of Brewer's decision to sign a first-of-its-kind law requiring police enforcing other laws to check immigration status if there is reason to believe someone is in the country illegally. The law also makes being here illegally a state crime. Brewer sought the meeting and Obama, who has denounced the law, accepted.

Emerging from the half-hour Oval Office session, Brewer said Obama had assured her that most of the 1,200 National Guard troops he is sending to the U.S.-Mexico border would be going to her state.

"He assured us that the majority of those resources would be coming to Arizona," she told reporters on the White House driveway.

Brewer said she and Obama, at odds over how to control illegal immigration, also agreed to try to work together on solutions. She said White House staff would visit Arizona in a couple of weeks to continue the "very cordial discussion" she had with the president.

Outside the White House, hundreds of protesters, as unhappy with the law as they are with Obama's broken promise to overhaul a system he and others say is broken, noisily greeted the Republican governor as she arrived for the meeting.

Nearly 200 people walked in a circle on the pedestrian-only portion of Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House — holding signs, chanting "Jan Brewer, shame on you!" beating drums and, in the case of one man, strumming a guitar.

The Arizona law is scheduled to take effect July 29, unless it is blocked by a court under pending legal challenges. Obama's Justice Department also is reviewing whether the law violates civil rights, with an eye toward a possible court challenge of its own.

Brewer has said she signed the law because she believes Washington had failed to do its part to protect the U.S.-Mexico border.

More than 20 states are considering similar legislation, according to the Immigration Policy Center.

The first of its kind in the U.S., Arizona's law has earned Obama's condemnation, sparked boycotts of Arizona and returned the emotionally and politically charged immigration issue back to the forefront of the national conscience.

Obama has called Arizona's law a "misdirected expression of frustration" at the federal government's inability to act.

The president favors a comprehensive approach that would both tighten access to the border and help millions of illegal immigrants in the U.S. become citizens. Some Republicans, including Brewer and Arizona Sens. Jon Kyl and John McCain, want tighter border controls first.

Obama has been more outspoken on the issue in recent weeks, restating a desire to enact a comprehensive overhaul but also reminding advocates that Democrats only have 59 votes in the Senate — one vote short of the number needed to overcome GOP stalling tactics.

Obama has met with Republican senators and telephoned some privately, but thus far Democrats have been unable to get Republican allies to write an immigration reform bill. Some Democrats also oppose taking up immigration reform this election year.

While lawmakers and border-state governors say more federal troops are needed to fight rising violence in their states, government data obtained by The Associated Press show it actually isn't so dangerous down there after all.

The top four big U.S. cities with the lowest violent crime rates — San Diego, Phoenix, El Paso and Austin — are in border states, according to a new FBI report. And an internal Customs and Border Protection report shows its agents face far less danger than street cops in most U.S. cities.

Brewer said in a televised interview last weekend: "We are out here on the battlefield getting the impact of all this illegal immigration, and all the crime that comes with it." But FBI crime reports for 2009 says violent crime in Arizona declined. And violent crimes in Southwest border counties are among the lowest in the nation per capita — they've dropped by more than 30 percent in the last two decades.

Brewer said after Thursday's meeting that she believes people across the country "want our border secured" and that she would like to see construction begin soon to complete a fence along the border.

The Obama-Brewer meeting was closed to the media, so reporters did not see them together. The White House later released an official photograph from the meeting.

Outside the White House, some protesters criticized Brewer and some criticized Obama for welcoming her to his office.

Rachel Angulo, of Tempe, Ariz., was vacationing in Washington when she learned about the protest from her Facebook friends. She said she decided to break from sightseeing to join. She wore a white T-shirt with the question "Do I look illegal?" on the front.

"I believe in security, but in a just security," said the Phoenix-born Angulo. "Just because I have on my huaraches doesn't mean I'm illegal." Huaraches are sandals.

Brent Wilkes, executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens, said Obama should not have met with Brewer.

"She wants to advance this hypothesis the federal government will not act on immigration reform and so Arizona is taking matters into its own hands," Wilkes said. "But what she's unwilling to disclose is the reason the federal government can't act is because Gov. Brewer and her Republican colleagues have blocked us."

http://cbs3.com/topstories/Obama.Brewer ... 31535.html

"The president urged Gov. Brewer to be his partner in working in a bipartisan manner on comprehensive immigration reform to implement the type of smart, sensible, and effective solutions the American people expect and deserve from their federal government," the White House said.

She is responsible for the people of her state, you numbskull!

"1,200 National Guard troops will be deployed along the U.S.-Mexico border."

I heard they were all office jobs. No?

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the best way to tackle illegal immigration is on the federal level. He added that Sen. John McCain was "very instrumental" in getting immigration overhaul legislation near passage in 2007.

All the more reason to vote McAmnisty out of office!

Obama has absolutely no intention of securing the border. If he is as serious about border security as he professes to be, he would have secured it as he has had 16 months in office to act and not hold border security hostage to political gamesmanship. All he cares about are open borders, uncontrolled illegal immigration, an unlimited supply of cheap labor and Democratic voters.
To Obama the murder, rape, identity theft and other crimes perpetrated on Americans by illegal alien criminals pouring across the wide open border are acceptable consequences of his open borders agenda. He cut border patrol numbers, gutted other physical border security measures and Napolitano gutted interior enforcement measures. He also is fighting the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling stating that Arizona does have the right to shut down businesses knowingly employing illegal aliens. Do these actions look like someone who says he wants to put Americans back to work and says he is using all available resources to protect the American people during a war on terror? He also claims, despite our wide open borders he will be able to contain rising health care costs with our limited resources and cut the deficit and debt. What planet are you living on Obama?
He does not give a damn nor will he ever give a damn about the welfare, safety and security of the American people because it doesn't fit into his one world no borders agenda.

latimes.com
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, Obama discuss illegal immigration
They reach little consensus other than a commitment to improve communication on border issues.
By Ken Dilanian, Tribune Washington Bureau
3:54 PM PDT, June 3, 2010
WASHINGTON

President Obama received Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer in the Oval Office on Thursday, but the two made no progress in bridging the enormous gulf that divides them — and the country — over illegal immigration and border security.

Brewer, who recently signed a controversial law requiring Arizona police to check the status of people they lawfully stop and suspect are illegal immigrants, wants more federal resources — including troops, helicopters, aerial drones and fences — devoted to controlling her state's border with Mexico.

She said she got no commitments from Obama other than a promise of better communication.

"I am encouraged that there is going to be much better dialogue between the federal government and the state of Arizona now," she told reporters outside the White House.

In a nod to those seeking more enforcement, Obama last week promised to spend an additional $500 million and send 1,200 National Guard troops to the border.

The president believes, however, that enforcement should accompany a comprehensive change in immigration law. He supports the latest Democratic version of such a bill, which requires a tamper-proof Social Security card, a temporary worker program for foreigners and a path to legalization for the 11 million immigrants already here. Such steps, backers say, are designed to close down the market for undocumented labor that draws people to cross the border illegally.

Brewer and other Republicans say they can't support immigration reform until the border is more tightly controlled.

"I want the border secured first," she said. She noted that after the last immigration rewrite in 1996, "Amnesty was bestowed upon people but we never secured the borders."

Brewer, a Republican who is up for reelection, has repeatedly said that her state is "under siege" from border crime, but statistics cast doubt on that sweeping assertion. Crime rates are stable or down along the U.S. side of the border, even as an epidemic of drug-related murders has wracked the Mexico side.

"Crime is down in Arizona," Brewer acknowledged in an interview with CNN's John King. "[But] the fact of the matter is, if you're living in Arizona and you are living in the areas that are severely impacted, you are faced with it on a daily basis."

It is true that certain types of crime, particularly kidnappings and robberies among those involved with illegal drugs, have increased in recent years, said Dennis Burke, U.S. attorney for Arizona.

Brewer said Obama declined to discuss whether the Justice Department would challenge the constitutionality of the Arizona law, which the president has said could lead to racial profiling.

"That was kind of brushed over a little bit," she said. "He was going to basically leave that up to the Department of Justice."

Brewer, who faces an August primary, requested the meeting with Obama, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. Asked why the president agreed to it, Gibbs said, "I don't think you're going to deal with comprehensive immigration reform and circumstances along the border without dealing with Arizona."

The Arizona law expressly prohibits profiling, and Brewer has said it represents a reasonable response to the failure of the federal government to secure the border and enforce immigration law.

Several polls have shown that a majority of Americans support the law. In a survey conducted May 19-24 by Quinnipiac University, 51% of Americans polled approved of the law and 31% disapproved.

Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano has argued that the Southwestern border is as secure as it's ever been, a position echoed by former Bush administration officials such as Thad Bingel, former chief of staff of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The Border Patrol has doubled in size to 20,000 since 2004. Apprehensions of illegal immigrants are at their lowest levels in years, suggesting that the number of illegal crossers has plummeted.

While the Justice Department has not yet decided whether to challenge the latest Arizona immigration law, the Obama administration on Friday filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court opposing an earlier Arizona law, one that targets employers who hire illegal immigrants. The acting U.S. solicitor general argued that the court should strike down the Arizona measure because it is preempted by federal law.

That law was signed in 2007 by then-Gov. Napolitano, whose spokesman declined to comment Thursday.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld ... 3247.story

Originally Posted by retiredairforce

Obama has absolutely no intention of securing the border. All he cares about are open borders, uncontrolled illegal immigration, an unlimited supply of cheap labor and Democratic voters.

To Obama the murder, rape, identity theft and other crimes perpetrated on Americans by illegal alien criminals pouring across the wide open border are acceptable consequences of his open borders agenda.

He also claims, despite our wide open borders he will be able to contain rising health care costs with our limited resources and cut the deficit and debt. What planet are you living on Obama?

He does not give a damn nor will he ever give a damn about the welfare, safety and security of the American people because it doesn't fit into his one world no borders agenda.

'Bama is all about Open Borders, Come And Get It. His instructions to Schumer and Graham included ensuring a supply of low skilled labor. This guy is a disaster for any American who'd be willing to take an entry level job - the young, the students, the newly unemployed, the structurally unemployed, and of course seniors looking to supplement their retirement income.
************************************************** ***********
Americans first in this magnificent country

American jobs for American workers

Fair trade, not free trade

"retiredairforce"

Obama has absolutely no intention of securing the border.
To Obama the murder, rape, identity theft and other crimes perpetrated on Americans by illegal alien criminals pouring across the wide open border are acceptable consequences of his open borders agenda.

This makes Obama feel at home back in Chicago or Kenya.

reuters.com
June 3, 2010
UPDATE 1-Arizona gov., Obama still far apart on immigration
6:43pm EDT
* Arizona Gov. Brewer says meeting was "cordial"

* Differences remain over border security, broad reform

* Did not address possible federal suit over state law

(Adds Obama comment, paragraph 5)

By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON, June 3 (Reuters) - Arizona Governor Jan Brewer and President Barack Obama sat down for half an hour to discuss immigration on Thursday, but there were few signs that the two had bridged their sharp differences on the issue.

Brewer, a Republican, recently signed a controversial bill cracking down on illegal immigrants in Arizona that Obama has called "misguided" and over which his administration may file suit.

The law would require officers to determine the immigration status of any person they suspect of being in the country illegally.

Critics have said the measure, which takes effect on July 29, is a mandate for racial profiling.

"Although I understand the frustration of the people of Arizona when it comes to the inflow of illegal immigrants, I don't think this is the right way to do it," Obama said in an interview on CNN's Larry King Live after the meeting. "I think this puts American citizens, who... look Hispanic, are Hispanic, potentially in an unfair situation."

The law has added tension to relations with Mexico, whose president, Felipe Calderon, sharply criticized it during a visit to Washington last month, saying it could expose hardworking Mexican-Americans to discrimination.

Brewer said she and Obama had agreed to work together on immigration. But she insisted that border security should be a higher priority than the sweeping federal immigration reform favored by the Democratic president.

"I am encouraged that there's going to be much better dialogue," she told reporters after her meeting with Obama at the White House. Brewer said Obama told her he would send staff to Arizona within the next few weeks to address the issue.

BORDER SECURITY FIRST?

Brewer said she and the president had discussed Obama's desire for comprehensive federal immigration reform, but said she felt border security should be the first priority.

"I believe the people of America want our borders secured, and after that we can tackle immigration," Brewer said. She said she wanted construction started on a border fence within the next month or so.

Arizona is the principal corridor for unauthorized immigrants entering the country from Mexico, and a busy entry point for Mexican cartels smuggling drugs into a voracious U.S. market.

As it sought Republican support for a sweeping immigration overhaul and sought to rally opposition to the Arizona law, the White House said last week it would seek $500 million for security and send up to 1,200 National Guard troops to the U.S. border with Mexico.

Brewer said she and Obama "brushed over" the possibility of a lawsuit in their "very, very cordial" meeting because Obama was going to leave that issue to the Department of Justice.

The White House said it had been a "good" meeting in which Obama pushed for overarching immigration reform and reiterated his concern about the Arizona law.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Obama believes there should be a simultaneous focus on border security and broader reform. "The president believes that... those things have to happen together," he said at a daily news briefing. (Editing by Matt Spetalnick and Eric Walsh)

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN032 ... arketsNews