Pearce: Put Natl Guard, DPS on border
Comments:48
(May 4th, 2009 @ 6:33am)

by Jim Cross/KTAR

State Sen. Russell Pearce says the swine flu is just another reason in a long list of reasons for sealing Arizona's border with Mexico.

The sine flu scare "certainly was an opportunity to secure that border and evaluate who's coming and who's not coming," the Mesa Republican told News/Talk 92-3 KTAR's Jay Lawrence Show. "We have an obligation to our citizens to secure that border."

Pearce said action was justified long before people became concerned about a deadly outbreak of the swine flu, since renamed H1N1, in Mexico City.

"You've got drugs coming across there, you've got other things coming across there," he said. "We make a big deal out of the swine flu. And maybe it is a big deal, although we have health officials now saying it's no different than any other flu. This isn't the first thing we've had. We have an epidemic of crime coming across that border."

Pearce said Gov. Jan Brewer has authority to act and she should.

"This governor's the commander-in-chief. Send the guard down there today. Put DPS (the Department of Public Safety) down there today. You want lower taxes, you want less crime, you want less disease, you want jobs protected for Americans in a time when Americans can't find work."

Former Gov. Janet Napolitano, now the secretary of Homeland Security, said, from the start of the swine flu scare, that closing the borders was not an option.

"It actually would have distracted us from the steps we did need to take to protect the American people," Napolitano said. "And that was focusing on what we could do to contain the virus that was already within our borders."

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