Thread: Napolitano: Send National Guard back to the border

Napolitano: Send National Guard back to the border
Associated Press
Nov. 21, 2008, 12:09PM
PHOENIX — Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, President-elect Barack Obama's reported primary choice for Homeland Security secretary, says she still thinks National Guard troops should be sent back to the U.S.-Mexico border.

Napolitano says that "as governor of Arizona," that's something she has advocated with other border state governors and still believes in.

Guard troops were deployed for two years to support the Border Patrol as it hired more agents, but the troops left in July.

Napolitano wouldn't say on Friday if she's been offered the Homeland Security post. It includes overseeing the Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

And she won't say whether she'll try to redeploy Guard troops to the border if she becomes Homeland Security secretary.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/6125236.html

Previously posted in ALIPAC

PHOENIX - Gov. Janet Napolitano is deploying more National Guard troops along the border today even as she vetoes a bill to force her to do it.

Topics: Arizona, AZ, National guard, illegal immigration, gangs, drugs, crimes, anarchy, Border Disaster Areas

3-8-2006
By Howard Fischer
CAPITOL MEDIA SERVICES

Her order, announced this morning, comes less thasn 24 hours after the Senate voted to direct the governor to expand the presence of the Guard in Southern Arizona and gave her $10 million to do it. Napolitano said she intends to veto that bill when it gets to her desk later today, calling the mandate an unconstitutional infringement on her power as commander-in-chief of the Guard.

But the governor's order is contingent on lawmakers recrafting that legislation to give her the money - but without what she said is the unconstitutional directive. That move puts the political hot potato back in the hands of the Republican-controlled Legislature: If they don't approve the bill the way she wants it, there's no money - and she can blame them for failure to deploy the troops.

But Rep. John Allen, R-Scottsdale, who crafted the measure, said he does not believe it is unconstitutional.

Napolitano insisted this morning she was not pressured into action by the Legislature and that she had always intended to expand the presence of the Guard in Southern Arizona.

"I've been saying since State of the State (speech) we're sending the Guard down there,'' she said.

But that isn't exactly true: In her January speech, the governor said only that she was asking Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to use a provision of federal law "which allows the federal government to pay for us to station the National Guard at our border.'' She said those federal funds "would allow the Guard to expand its presence and become even more involved in enforcing the rule of law at the border.''

"I'm not playing semantics with you,'' she shot back Wednesday when pressed about the differences.

So why did she wait until now - with the Legislature sending her a mandate to put the Guard on the border - to issue her order, as opposed to doing it months ago?

"I was waiting to see if Secretary Rumsfeld would fund the Guard,'' she responded. Napolitano said she had not had a chance to meet with him until she was in Washington last week.

There are fewer than 200 Guard troops along the border now, doing what Napolitano has described as "support'' functions.

She said while troop levels will change, the mission will not.
"They are not there to militarize the border,'' she said. "We are not at war with Mexico.''

Napolitano said she wants troops doing things like helping to staff border checkpoints and conducting cargo, vehicle and electronic identification checks, assisting local law enforcement and working with the Department of Public Safety in their campaign to keep stolen vehicles from entering Mexico. The governor's decision comes in what promises to be a tough reelection year for her, with Republican foes saying she has been slow to protect the state from illegal immigration.

In approving the mandate Tuesday, Sen. Dean Martin, R-Phoenix, chided Napolitano for saying in her January speech she would expand the role of the Guard on the border -- with federal dollars.

"If she's going to ask for troops on the border and she wants the money to pay for it, the Legislature is the right body to appropriate those monies and give her the authority,'' Martin said.

"But you can't play it both ways,'' he continued. "You can't pretend to want it one day and then say you don't the next.''

Napolitano, in turn, accused Allen of being the one who is playing games. She said Allen was shown a copy of the draft executive order Tuesday night but still refused to back off the wording that would require her to use Guard troops.

"I told her to her face I didn't trust her,'' said Allen. He said the governor has had credibility issues since she went back on a budget deal at the end of the 2005 legislative session.
http://www.alipac.us/article1091.html

Arizona Governor Signs Tough Bill on Hiring Illegal Immigrants

By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
Published: July 3, 2007
Expressing frustration with the lack of a federal immigration law overhaul, Gov. Janet Napolitano of Arizona signed a bill yesterday providing what are thought to be the toughest state sanctions in the country against employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants.

Ms. Napolitano, a Democrat, called the bill flawed and suggested that the Arizona Legislature reconvene to repair problems with it, but she nevertheless moved forward ''because Congress has failed miserably,'' she wrote in a statement.

The bill requires employers to verify the legal status of their employees. If they fail to do so, they risk having their business licenses suspended. A second offense could result in the ''business death penalty,'' a permanent revocation of the state business license, effectively preventing a business from operating in the state.

Ms. Napolitano said she was concerned, among other problems, that under the law hospitals and nursing homes could end up shuttered because of hiring one illegal immigrant. She also said the bill did not provide enough money for the state attorney general to investigate complaints.

Although federal law already makes it a crime to hire illegal workers, supporters of the Arizona bill have said enforcement is lax.

Ms. Napolitano sent a letter to Senator Harry Reid, Democrat of Arizona and the majority leader, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, saying Congressional inaction on immigration was forcing states to act.

Ms. Napolitano's decision had been anxiously awaited in Arizona, the state where more people cross illegally into the United States than any other.

Last year, Ms. Napolitano vetoed an employer-sanctions bill, saying that its language was flawed and that it would not achieve its goals.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.h ... A9619C8B63

Excerpt:

Napolitano remains a strong supporter of guest worker programs and a pathway to citizenship for most of those people illegally residing in the U.S. — positions embraced by both 2008 presidential candidates.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6124446.html

So did John McCain. You have to live with what you got. I want to give someone the benefit of the doubt until they prove otherwise. She's also been a Federal Atty for AZ and no doubt had to prosecute illegal aliens there. She has an appropriate law enforcement background and she hasn't been a total woos even though she doesn't have a perfect record. Give her time to show what she'll do for crying out loud.

Mapwife wrote:

I want to give someone the benefit of the doubt until they prove otherwise.

She has poven "otherwise" on several occasions.

Obama wants to hear from YOU.

Go to the link at the end of this comment and fill in the blanks.

(REMEMBER: YOU CAN GET MORE FLIES WITH HONEY THAN WITH VINEGAR.")

I told him:
"Bring our troops home and put them on our border to stop the invasion of our country by Mexico"

and

"Do NOT reward the criminal actions of MILLIONS of ILLEGAL aliens by giving them citizenship."

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Originally Posted by MW

Mapwife wrote:

I want to give someone the benefit of the doubt until they prove otherwise.

She has poven "otherwise" on several occasions. [/q!uote]

She hasn't had the post yet! Give her a chance to mess. Up!

Mapwife wrote:

She hasn't had the post yet! Give her a chance to mess. Up!

She already messed up enough as the governor of Arizona. Why give her a chance to continue messing up? A job change is not going to change what's in her heart.