Gov. Jan Brewer wants face time next week with President Barack Obama to tell him what she feels he needs to do to secure the border.
Brewer said Friday she also wants to talk with homeland security chief Janet Napolitano about border issues. The governor said her predecessor, who was very critical of the federal response to her own calls for more security, has “turned a blind eye” on Arizona’s problems since arriving in Washington more than a year ago.
Those meetings are not going to happen — at least not right now.
“We remain in regular contact with the Governor and her staff,” said White House spokesman Adam Abrams. “While the President’s schedule next week doesn’t allow for a meeting, he does intend to sit down with the Governor in the future.”
Matt Chandler, spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, acknowledged Brewer’s request to sit down with Napolitano, along with a similar query from Attorney General Terry Goddard.
“While the Secretary was unavailable for the times Governor Brewer and Attorney General Goddard initially requested, she intends to meet with both in the near future,” Chandler said.
But Chandler suggested that Brewer’s comments about Napolitano are not based in fact. He provided a litany of statistics about the number of new people and pieces of new equipment that have been placed on the border since the Obama administration took over.
Brewer, however, said Napolitano’s own words — both now and when she was governor — belie that.
The governor cited in particular testimony by Napolitano last month to a Senate committee saying the border is “as secure now as it has ever been.”
“If you would look at some of her correspondence previously, they weren’t very secure,” Brewer said, referring to a series of letters Napolitano, as governor, sent to Michael Chertoff who was homeland security chief in the Bush administration.
Brewer said that sentiment by Napolitano at least part of the reason she wants to meet personally with Obama to give him what she believes is an accurate accounting of the real situation.
“I think that he owes it to the people of Arizona, if not to the people of the United States, to sit down and have a conversation with him in regards to what is needed at our border. We need to secure them,” Brewer said.
The governor said she has not talked with the president since he announced his plans earlier this week to put 1,200 National Guard troops along the border. Brewer said she hasn’t yet obtained any details on what that will mean to Arizona.
“But I think it’s important that the leader of the United States and the governor of the state of Arizona sit down face to face and have a conversation of exactly what is going on in Arizona and ask him for his help and hope that he responds positively,” she said.
The governor already is planning a trip to Washington this coming week to talk with other governors who, like her, are members of a special council the president appointed to provide him with advice on issues of homeland security. The trip is to prepare for a July meeting of the actual council.
Brewer’s comments about what Napolitano told the Senate about border security do not reflect the complete testimony.
While the former governor did say the border is as secure as it has ever been, she also told senators that every goal set by Congress for her department to improve border security has been met “or is within a hair’s breadth of being completed.” That includes number of agents, deployment of technology and construction of new fencing.
And she said Congress needs to decide exactly what is expected.
“One of the questions I think we need to talk about is whether securing the border is ever going to be reached in the sense of the Congress, or whether that goal post is going to keep moving,” Napolitano said.
Asked for a response of Brewer’s comments, Napolitano’s press office provided a fact sheet of accomplishments since she took over, including adding 110 new special agents to the Border Enforcement Security Task Forces, tripling the number of intelligence analysts Immigration and Customs Enforcement has on the southwest border and deploying 13 additional canine teams to identify firearms and currency on top of the five.
cascasual posted at 5:14 pm on Fri, May 28, 2010.
Am I reading this correctly,Washington is sending 1,200 troops??? That's it. We have 100s 0f thousands posted thru out the world. Security starts at home.
AZMomma posted at 5:16 pm on Fri, May 28, 2010.
Oh Jan....you honestly think he will meet and even listen to what you have to say? His mind is closed and he is in bed with his 'Handlers' on this one.
You have a better chance with Holder or Napolitano. Which is to say...'Slim to none"
Reciprocator posted at 5:37 pm on Fri, May 28, 2010.
Obama is not aware that Arizona is part of the United States. He can't see Arizona from his porch while smoking. 968 days till Sunday January 20, 2013.
Reciprocator posted at 5:41 pm on Fri, May 28, 2010.
The protection of our borders has become a partisan issue. "Only from Obama."
Accuracy posted at 5:45 pm on Fri, May 28, 2010.
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer said the country's borders still aren't secure and that the federal government should be moving quicker to do more to change that.
But that is a CHANGE that President Obama does not want to make.
IceCat posted at 6:16 pm on Fri, May 28, 2010.
[wink] Some of these comments just boggle my mind. Where was Brewer on this issue just a year ago? Let's just say it wasn't on her radar. If she was so concerned as Governor of Arizona, she had the power to send the Arizona National Guard to the border, but she didn't.
ArizonaRising posted at 10:42 pm on Fri, May 28, 2010.
Obama will not secure the borders of this nation. His sole purpose is to destroy what's left of America. That's it. Nothing else. Why do you think he's ditching the Arlington memorial ceremony? He hates this nation. He hates our soldiers and the entire military because of what it stands for. He hates everything about America. Gov. Brewer should wake up and smell the coffee because he's not going to do anything.
TruthSeeker posted at 1:02 am on Sat, May 29, 2010.
Is there a golf course with all the amenities near the border? That's about the only way she's going to get Obama there.
Now Obama wants to kill our employer sanctions law. He's having the Supreme Court review Arizona's employer sanctions bill. So I guess more illegals are going to be taking our jobs.
http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/state/administration-asks-supreme-court-to-review-arizona%27s-employer-sanctions-law
forkedlift1 posted at 2:34 am on Sat, May 29, 2010.
Amen, IceCat.
After I read the intensely partisan, combative and off-topic comments preceding your comment, I had to go back and read the article again.
While our state is suffering from boycotts, international rebuke, and five huge lawsuits over SB 1070, Gov. Brewer skirts the embarrassing issue and says, essentially, that SB 1070 is all Obama's fault because he hasn't done anything to secure our border with Mexico.
Just the facts, ma'm, just the facts.
A couple days ago President Obama ordered 1,200 National Guard troops to the Arizona-Mexico border to aide in securing that border. (Arizona's Sen. John McCain later said he thought 6,000 troops at the border would be better.)
Now, on short notice and at her convenience, Brewer is insisting on a meeting with the President and Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano (Arizona's previous governor).
Here we read, "The governor (Brewer) said her predecessor, who was very critical of the federal response to her own calls for more security, has “turned a blind eye” on Arizona’s problems since arriving in Washington more than a year ago."
Then,
"Asked for a response of Brewer’s comments, Napolitano’s press office provided a fact sheet of accomplishments since she took over, including adding 110 new special agents to the Border Enforcement Security Task Forces, tripling the number of intelligence analysts Immigration and Customs Enforcement has on the southwest border and deploying 13 additional canine teams to identify firearms and currency on top of the five."
So one must ask, are Brewer's claims valid? Since she herself could have ordered the National Guard to the border, does she know what she wants? Does she understand what the needs are for maximum security of the border since a porous border is apparently perceived to be the open door for drug and human smugglers from Mexico? When was this border urgency first expressed by Brewer?
Is Napolitano's list of what Homeland Security has done in the 17 months she's been in office untrue? Not enough?
What I'm seeing in all this is a combative (and defensive) power play by Brewer, whose intent is focused on political party affiliation -- the Obama administration, the blame game -- not on thoughtful solutions to the actual criminal activity emanating from south of the border.
Compounding the criminal activity problem for every law enforcement official in the state is the enactment of SB 1070, to effectively rid the state of all Latinos. "Legal" or "illegal" Immigration status is irrelevant.
Kind of like ridding New York City of all Italianos due to the birth affiliation of some with the Sicilian Mafia.
Shatmeister posted at 6:28 pm on Sat, May 29, 2010.
Mr President ENFORCE THE LAWS... OR GET THE HECK OUT OF THE WAY!!!
wdgnas posted at 5:59 am on Sun, May 30, 2010.
i vaguely remember the previous governor not getting the time of day from the previous president. something to do with credibility...
TruthSeeker posted at 3:29 pm on Sun, May 30, 2010.
Obama has left Republican Governor Jan Brewer and Republican Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana twisting in the wind. Is there a trend here? Is he just President of Democrat States ("PODS")? Yet Obama has set aside plenty of face time with Paul McCartney this week.
rotorhead1871 posted at 10:11 pm on Sun, May 30, 2010.
I hope some progress comes from this meeting, we need a comprehensive plan for border security.
forkedlift1 posted at 7:21 am on Tue, Jun 1, 2010.
It's hard to tell when these positively amazing comments were posted since the Tribune does not supply the dates for same.
One comment is so mind boggling, it deserves a reminder of this past month's events.
In spite of all the deserved negative national attention that Arizona has rightly been receiving for over a month, "Reciprocator" wrote,
"Obama is not aware that Arizona is part of the United States."
What??!! In fact it is Arizona (our state legislature and governor) who are not aware that Arizona is part of the United States.
A number of bloggers have even encouraged Arizona's state lawmakers to secede from the union since its recent action has been to usurp the powers of the federal government with regard to immigration and our immigration laws.
Arizona will go it alone, says Arizona. It has concocted the most chilling enforcement mechanisms imaginable to "handle" the country's immigration laws for Arizona, and it throws in a few extra laws of its own for good measure.
Every law enforcement official, officer and agency in the state now will have the prioritized duty of acting as unrestricted immigration enforcement agents. An official's actions are based on his undefined "reasonable suspicion" during a lawful "stop" that anyone in the vicinity of the "stop" is a person who is unlawfully present in the country.
The stated intent of Arizona's go-it-alone law is to remove all residents from its sacrosanct state who do not have on their person documented evidence that they are lawfully present in the state of Arizona.
"Misguided" legislation isn't the half of it. For all intents and purposes, Arizona HAS seceded from the union by choice.