Obama's transition team scheming with Phoenix Mayor Gordon
An earlier, incomplete version of this story was posted earlier. I wanted to post this version with new important details and with a more accurate title:
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Gordon urges more funds for border security
Scott Wong - Dec. 12, 2008 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon told senior members of President-elect Barack Obama's transition team Thursday that the U.S. government should boost the number of federal agents on the border but also dedicate more money to law-enforcement operations targeting violent crime in urban cities.
Gordon made his comments during a conference call with transition team officials that focused on ways the federal government could better help local governments enforce illegal- immigration laws.
"The public is frustrated with the lack of perceived and actual action by the federal government and have turned to local agencies . . . to address the criminal aspect of illegal immigration," Gordon said after the phone call, which was led by a co-leader of Obama's transition working group on immigration, Stanford law Professor Tino Cuellar.
Others who sat in on the conversation included Daniel Sepulveda, who worked as a senior economics-policy adviser in Obama's Senate office; Isaac Reyes of the U.S./Mexico Border Counties Coalition; and representatives from the Major Cities Chiefs Association, a group of big-city police chiefs.
Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, whom Obama recently named as his Homeland Security secretary, did not participate.
Gordon was asked to join the call in his capacity as the Immigration Task Force chairman for the U.S. Conference of Mayors. It represented his first interaction with the incoming Obama administration since the November election.
In the past year, Gordon has called on Congress to take action on comprehensive immigration reform and lift the burden from local governments that are spending millions of dollars to combat violent, immigration-related crimes.
He reiterated that message Thursday.
"I asked that the administration act quickly," Gordon said, "because even though immigration has moved off the back burner or even out of the kitchen, it is an issue that won't go away."
The mayor has been especially critical of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who with help from federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents has ramped up efforts to arrest undocumented immigrants through minor traffic stops and workplace raids.
Gordon told transition members that such tactics shift law-enforcement resources and attention away from more serious, violent criminals. And they leave immigrant witnesses and victims of human smuggling, murder and other crimes reluctant to talk to authorities for fear of being arrested and deported.
The Democratic mayor said additional funding is needed to strengthen partnerships between federal, state and local law-enforcement agencies that focus on human, drug and gun trafficking in urban cities afflicted by illegal immigration. For an Arizona task force, it would mean more money for Phoenix police, the state Department of Public Safety, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the FBI.
Bill Scheel, a Gordon senior adviser who listened in on the call from Washington, D.C., said the Obama team seemed most impressed with how centrist politicians like Napolitano and Gordon have remained popular among voters while dealing with the politically charged immigration debate.
"Certainly, they are looking for ways to navigate the politics of all of this," Scheel said
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepubli ... n1212.html
