Napolitano border 'facts' disputed
Jun. 6, 2010 12:00 AM
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano wrote on Friday that the nation's border is more secure than ever ("If you look at facts, border is more secure than ever," Opinions).
She goes on to proclaim that the Obama "administration has made every conceivable effort to secure our border."
Let's look at what the administration has allegedly accomplished.
Secretary Napolitano claims that Border Patrol agents have doubled from 10,000 to 20,000. But the build-up was well under way before President Obama was even elected.
There were already 18,000 agents along the border in 2008, and 2,000 more were already funded and being hired before January 2009.
She states that the president has requested 1,200 National Guard troops to be sent to the border, but that's only one-fifth of the amount that was deployed in 2006 (and the situation today is far worse than it was then).
Moreover, the 1,200 Guardsman she mentions would be assigned to desk jobs, not border security.
Action speaks louder than words. The administration's head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement recently suggested his agency will not accept or process illegal immigrants turned over by local Arizona law enforcement.
The Department of Justice has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the Arizona law that would sanction employers who hire illegal immigrants.
And Attorney General Eric Holder is devoting "round-the-clock" resources to devise ways to sue Arizona over its new immigration enforcement laws.
Meanwhile, illegal immigrants continue to flood into the United States - roughly 500,000 in 2009 alone, half of whom came through our state.
It's been said statistics can be manipulated to prove anything.
But the cold hard fact is that our border is far from secure, and much more needs to be done. The solution is to pass the McCain/Kyl 10-point border security plan into law immediately.
- John McCain and Jon Kyl, Phoenix
The writers, both Republicans, represent Arizona in the U.S. Senate.
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