Thread: Governor believes immigration reform will reduce violence in

Governor believes immigration reform will reduce violence in Sonora

By Jonathan Clark/Herald/Review

June 7, 2007

BISBEE - Comprehensive immigration reform that includes an expanded guest worker program could help improve security along Arizona's border with Mexico, Gov. Janet Napolitano said Wednesday.

"I think we spend an awful lot of precious law enforcement resources chasing after people who are crossing over the border to work," Napolitano told the Herald/Review during a telephone interview.

"But if you had a process where they could come through lawfully with a permit, those law enforcement resources could be deployed better to deal with the drug traffickers and other violent criminals who prey upon the border."

As for the recent drug-related violence in Sonora, the governor said she and her administration have been closely monitoring the situation via regular contact with counterparts south of the border.

In fact, Napolitano said, she will be meeting with Sonora Gov. Eduardo Bours, Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora and other officials next week in Tucson to discuss ways of confronting the problem.

And while combating drug cartels and drug violence in Mexico is the responsibility of Mexican authorities, Napolitano said, there are still ways in which U.S. officials can cooperate. Advertisement

"Some of these gangs and organizations have networks that extend into Arizona," she said. "So we could provide some help on how they are getting some of their money, or their stolen cars, or that kind of thing."

In the days after a convoy carrying as many as 50 drug cartel hitmen rolled into the Sonoran city of Cananea on May 16 and set off a gun battle that would ultimately leave 23 people dead, Bours told reporters in the state capital of Hermosillo that he believed the weapons used by the hitmen had come from Arizona.

He said he had asked Napolitano to help track down their source.

Napolitano said Wednesday that the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms had already formed a task force to investigate how the guns got into Mexico.

"That is being worked on right now," she said.

The governor said she understands the concern of those Arizonans living along the border that the violence in Sonora might spill over into the U.S.

But she said the example of Nuevo Laredo, a Mexican border city in the state of Tamaulipas that has seen perhaps the bloodiest drug-related violence in Mexico, suggested that a spill-over effect is unlikely.

"When this type of violence began erupting south of East Texas, near Laredo, none of it ever crossed onto the U.S. side of the border," she said.

"But on the other hand, you don't want it to, so you need to stay on top of something like this. And we are."

Napolitano also reiterated her criticism of a new U.S. Customs and Border Protection effort to recruit Border Patrol agents to take temporary duty assignments in Iraq.

In April, agency commissioner Ralph Basham sent an internal recruitment message to active CBP officers and Border Patrol agents asking them to consider the overseas duty, with a promise of a 70 percent increase in salary plus considerable overtime pay.

Napolitano called the idea "nuts."

"I think if they want experienced Border Patrol agents to go to Iraq, they ought to recruit from the pool of retired Border Patrol agents," she said.

"They've never been able to fully staff active duty agents, so I think that it's the wrong pool to recruit from."

http://www.douglasdispatch.com/articles ... /news2.txt

"But if you had a process where they could come through lawfully with a permit, those law enforcement resources could be deployed better to deal with the drug traffickers and other violent criminals who prey upon the border."

I'm really tired of politicians playing stupid. We already have a process in place Janet you idiot! The problem is that the illegals do not want to play by the rules, and the existing laws haven't been enforced. They think this is their rightful land, and they are convinced that they are not breaking laws because WE are the illegal immigrants. Think I'm kidding? Check out the signs they are carrying from all the photos of their marches.

I think we need all should start bombarding her office with emails containing pictures from all the illegal marches with their signs saying exactly what I said above.
I'm sure janet uses day labor help to keep the governor's mansion yard groomed.

Again Janet how many do you think we can take in, believe me there are alot more coming across the border than we can handle. I wish you stupid people whould get that, we can not take in all of North America!!!! how can you be so dumb!!!WHEN THEY ARREST 200 PEOPLE AND THEY CAME FROM 32 DIFFERENT COUNTRIES , HOW MANY CAN WE TAKE WE NEED OUR BORDERS CLOSED AND LAWS ENFORCED!!!!

You mean like the millions of people who are spilling over our borders? Or like the thousands of violent gang members who are spilling over our borders? Maybe she meant the drugs and pushers spilling over our borders?

Governor it's time that you woke up and realized that much of the violence that we have in our cities comes from the hordes who are spilling over our borders.

WELCOME TO ALIPAC,lUNARMINER GLAD TO HAVE YOU WITH US, AND YES ALL THE ONES SPILLING OVER OUR BORDERS