Short Takes on The Border

Two good, albeit brief, submissions to the LA Times from NM Guv Bill Richardson and AZ Guv Janet Napolitano on their recent declarations of emergency regarding their borders. I can't help but ask myself: Where's Rick Perry in all of this?

Richardson:

Border security and immigration issues are clearly a federal responsibility. And those of us from border states have continuously urged the federal government to increase funding, expand patrols and dedicate more resources for border security. Yet our pleas have been met mostly by inaction.

The federal government could help by better coordinating with Mexico and urging its government to take simple steps, such as bulldozing Las Chepas, a small town on the border that, abandoned by its residents, has become a notorious staging area for smuggling drugs and immigrants. Border Patrol personnel are doing all they can, but they simply do not have the resources.

Legislation signed by President Bush last fall called for 2,000 more border agents, yet his own budget proposal this year funded only 210 additional agents.

Local input and expertise also are needed. State and local officials, who understand their areas' problems, must be involved in crafting an effective border security policy. We will continue pushing the federal government to find a long-term, comprehensive solution to illegal immigration and porous borders. But current circumstances in New Mexico demanded immediate action.

Napolitano:

Arizona's border with Mexico is in drastic need of federal attention, but the federal government has done little to shore it up. As a result, criminality is alive and well along the border, preying upon Arizonans as well as the people desperate to get into the United States.

Day in and day out, law enforcement officers in the four counties on the border ? Cochise, Santa Cruz, Pima and Yuma ? are stretched thin. Each day, officers in Nogales, Douglas and other border cities battle crimes involving violent human trafficking and the illegal drug trade. Property damage is rampant; burglaries and robberies are on the rise. The harm is not just to residents; last year, at least 172 people died in the Southwestern desert looking for a better way of life. This year is worse: It's only August, and more than 200 individuals have lost their lives.

Illegal immigration contributes to the astronomical number of auto thefts in our state ? about 10% of the stolen vehicles confiscated in Arizona are seized at the border, and most of those seizures are related to human smuggling.

Our state accounts for about half of all illegal immigrant apprehensions in the country. Many of the human traffickers have little regard for their "customers."

Enough is enough. States must now do what they can where the federal government won't.