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Napolitano to check out border in Arizona
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, right, and Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., speak on their way to a news conference after touring the Los Angeles port complex at the Port of Los Angeles Coast Guard Station. April 13, 2009.
The Associated Press
Former Gov. Janet Napolitano makes her first official trip as a federal official back to Arizona this week to see what forces under her command are doing about smuggling, both in and out of this country.
Napolitano, now head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, will be at the Mariposa port of entry west of Nogales on Wednesday afternoon. That follows brief stops the same day in El Paso and in Columbus, N.M.
A press aide said he did not know if the former governor will take time for interviews.
The visits come several weeks after Napolitano and President Barack Obama announced her agency was deploying several hundred federal agents to the Southwest border in an effort to curtail the flow of guns and money from this country to Mexican drug cartels.
In the announcement Monday of her visit, her agency said Napolitano wants not only to survey the situation but also to “coordinate with state and local law enforcement.” That effort, according to the agency, includes not only stopping the flow of arms and cash into Mexico but also trying to curtail illegal immigration into this country.
The escalating gang violence on the Mexican side of the border has led to fears of it spreading into the United States.
Some of that already is occurring, with Phoenix having more kidnappings than any other U.S. city. Much of that is believed to be linked to drug rings.
The situation in Arizona has gotten worse at least in part because Immigration and Customs Enforcement, part of Napolitano’s agency, has focused much of its efforts in the last few years at hardening the border in California and Texas. That has forced much of the smuggling, both in humans and narcotics, into Arizona.
Obama named Napolitano, a fellow Democrat, as his homeland security chief shortly after being elected last November. But Napolitano stayed on as governor — and even produced a budget proposal — until she was formally confirmed by the U.S. Senate on Jan. 20.
Her departure elevated Republican Jan Brewer, who had been secretary of state, to become governor.
While Napolitano is based in Washington, she has maintained a condominium in Phoenix and said she will remain registered to vote here.
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