By JUAN CARLOS LLORCAAssociated Press
EL PASO, Texas – U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said Thursday that security on the southern U.S. border "is better now than it ever has been" and that violence from neighboring Mexico hasn't spilled over in a serious way.
Napolitano spoke at the Bridge of The Americas border crossing, after a meeting with the mayors of the border towns of El Paso, Nogales, Ariz., and Yuma, Ariz. Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade Francisco Sanchez and U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Alan Bersin also were present.
Napolitano said the Department of Homeland Security will deploy 250 more border agents and expects to have 300 more under their next budget if it's approved. She stated that Homeland Security is investing "millions of dollars in the side of commerce and trade" to improve infrastructure and technology along the border.
However, she added that there is a need to correct wrong impressions about the border region. Napolitano said border towns are safe for travel, trade and commerce. She noted that the total value of imports crossing the Southwest border was up 22 percent in fiscal year 2010, she said.
"There is a perception that the border is worse now than it ever has been. That is wrong. The border is better now than it ever has been," she said.
The perception that the violence in Mexico has spilled over to bordering U.S. cities is "wrong again," Napolitano said. Violent crime rates have remained flat or decreased in border communities in the Southwest, she said. However, she recognized that "there is much to do with (their) colleagues in Mexico in respect to the drug cartels" that are largely responsible for the unprecedented wave of violence in that country.
El Paso Mayor John Cook said his city has been ranked the safest city in the country of its size, despite being across the border from Ciudad Juarez, which is at the center of Mexico's drug cartel violence.
"The lie about border cities being dangerous has been told so many times that people are starting to believe it, but we as border communities have to speak out," Cook sad.
Napolitano cited a reduction of 36 percent in the number of illegal immigrant detentions, a key number to estimate the total of illegal border crossings, and the increase in trade as reasons to believe the situation along the border has improved.
"Numbers are in the right direction and dramatically so," she said.
Still, she stressed that she didn't come to El Paso "to run a victory lap" and that there "is much work to do."
I've changed my mind:
ReplyDeleteJanet Napolitano doesn't have a dick. She is one.
Imjustagirl
That bitch is a NUTCASE and belongs in the looney bin, for real... How did a troll like her EVER get any position in politics? Its like one day no one ever heard of her and the next day she climbs out from under a bridge and there she is... PATHETIC! her and Clinton are a disgrace to the U.S. government! They can not manage their own homes let alone a serious political office... Just pathetic...
ReplyDeleteAre you Sh-ting me Janet you and Mr holder have to be living in parrallel universe i guess if you tell yourself a lie enough to beleave it
ReplyDeleteSounds a bit like the emperors new clothes.
ReplyDeleteFor those of you who do not live in a town that borders mexico let me tell you that this woman is using just a bit of truth to make her lie sound better. All the info has been made available but i will be darned if i am going to find all the links. stuff like stores closing on the US side because mexicans who used to come to the US no longer do because they are afraid to travel. Scared mexican families are buying up many homes along the border to try and keep their families as safe or safer than they would be in mexico. US farmers have made a web blog and some have been forced off their land already and others are soon to follow. Most of us here heard about "Rob Krentz was a Cochise County, AZ cattle farmer who had battled the bloody consequences of illegal immigration for years. Over the weekend, his dead body was found on his ranch. The longtime rancher had been gunned down. Police are investigating the homicide." http://michellemalkin.com/2010/03/29/the-death-of-an-arizona-rancher/
If you don't live on the border find a link to a border towns newspaper or tv channel and follow them over a coffee now and again and you will see only a portion of whats going on due to the channel needing to fit 24 hours of news into 39 minutes after commercials lol.
Stay safe out there keep your powder dry and your axe sharp.
Really Janet? You know what your Feds want to tell you, try living among the people of El Paso and see what lifes about on the streets, better yet spend a night in Juarez and listen to the ones that cross between the border, what a bullshit story you tell.
ReplyDelete"PATHETIC! her and Clinton are a disgrace to the U.S. government"
ReplyDeleteYou can say whatever about Napolitano, she aint $hit!
...but Clinton? Cmon, she have more balls than Obama and Biden combine.
Don Diego.
Ohhhh..Don't even get me started...How did our country elect such out of touch morons? She's be better suited as a cashier at WalMart.
ReplyDeleteShe's absolutely correct. Whoever is making these comments don't lve anywhere near the US Mexico border. They're sitting in their living rooms watching FOX News.
ReplyDeletecabo said...
ReplyDeletelet me be the first to say fuck you Napolitano. go spend the day in juarez without your security force if it is so safe.
..........
So Juarez is part of the U.S. now?
Is this the same slut that claimed not to know anything about the "fast & furious " program running right under her nose? What a freaking joke!
ReplyDeleteMr. Janet.. now that you have the border under control .. sarcasm. start deporting the illegqls that are already in the USA. Round them up, ship them back to mexico.. whole families need to go, after all there are more than 15 milllion of them here, that should keep you busy for a while; and give us a truthful report every month. And send with them bills for medical, schooling, etc. etc. to give to their "leader" calderon.
ReplyDeletethis bitch is retarted. throw this fat pig in juarez or reynosa for a day. then let her talk about how safe it is right across the border from there. i live on the border and our local news is crazy!
ReplyDeletejajjajajaa...yeah everything is oky doky on the border...but we better fear n korea...
ReplyDeletei live in Zapata, Texas and we`re safe as hell
ReplyDeleteIf she thinks it is so safe, Ms Napolitano ought to take a nice stroll through Juarez one day.
ReplyDeleteExcellent point, Cabo. Napolitano focuses on past criminal statistics, but doesn't acknowledge the potential for violence spreading north from Mexico. If the border towns are so abundantly safe, then why does DHS need to deploy 250 more officers and hire 300 more for the southern border?
ReplyDeleteJanet doesn't seem to realize that there is nothing that safe about the Border area for those that live there and cross back and forth every week or even every day there...
ReplyDelete"There is a perception that the border is worse now than it ever has been. That is wrong. The border is better now than it ever has been," she said.///
She is an idiot or just a liar or both.
El Paso here, the person who posted earlier speaking on my city is exaggerating. I'm in one of the safest cities in the country, and police are all over, especially at night. Trouble does not find you in big cities like Houston, trust me I have lived there.
ReplyDeleteNot nearly as many El Pasoans visit Juarez like we use to, it comes as no shock to me and many others i something were to happen to any resident or visitor across the border.
I have lived here almost all my life, do not be fooled.
What a F*#@&#g IDIOT!!!! I am an American citizen and proud to be an American. It sickens and embarrasses me when I see our government officials make statements like this. I would like to see here wear a jacket that says "US Homeland Security" and walk the streets of Reynosa.
ReplyDeleteIf she feels the borders are safe, why does the US need 300 more border agents to improve "infrastructure and technology". Sounds like a more BS and government waste to me.
Are you kiddin me? How this stupid moron can say that? Well, that is the politics of this administration. Sounds like the mexican politicos, aqui no pasa nada es la psicosis de la gente. How stupid can she(Napolitano) be?
ReplyDeleteI live in Del Rio, nothing has changed at all besides us not crossing over into Acuna to party anymore. I feel very safe so i can't really argue with her from my border town standpoint.
ReplyDeleteAll this money wasted on education for nothing. Quite a few people even in here seems to believe that Juarez ,Reynosa etc. are part of the US.
ReplyDeleteThe only think that Janet N. and Obomber care about is that 'US Border towns' are just this very second..... still relatively 'safe'. Just stay on this d=side is their big message. What people like her and Anonymous 7:28AM don't get though, is that the Border is BOTH sides of the Border and not just the US side.
ReplyDeleteIt's kind of how these folk often think about nuclear power, too. Nukes are safe to them until just the very second when ithey no longer are, and thousands of square miles then get closed off due to becoming radioactive for prolonged periods of time. Only then do these linear thinking people ever begin to say that they didn't know and blah blah blah and excuses excuses excuses.
Another Del Rioan I too stay away from Acuna and feel absulutely safe on the US side because you can't spit without hitting a US LE officer here.
ReplyDeleteYou folks posting that don't live here are watching to much Fox news.
Napolitano oughta go cruiseing at 2 A.M. in Juarez all by her lonesome in a BIG BLACK SUV or put her in a pimped out camper down by the Rio Grande outa Juarez under the bridge,wonder if she could sleep in that pimped out camper for a week with that black SUV all shiny parked beside it.Wonder how long this american dumbass would last.She has forgot to count the ones that weren't caught,but she certainly remembers who signs her paycheck,she is a waterboy for ODUMBA..777
ReplyDelete