Sunday, April 04, 2010

Why the silence from Janet Napolitano about putting troops on the border?

Eight days ago, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced “significant progress” in securing the border in the year since President Barack Obama launched his Southwest Border Initiative. Words like “decisive action”, “sustained security efforts” and “major progress” were employed. One day later, Rob Krentz was dead, shot to death just 20 miles from the border on land his family has ranched since before Arizona became a state. Investigators tracked a set of footprints from the scene of the shooting to the border and it's widely believed that he was killed by a drug smuggler. Krentz's death prompted Republican Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer to renew her 13-month-old call for the feds to send National Guard troops to the border, a call echoed by Republican Sen. John McCain and Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Democratic New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson flat out ordered the New Mexico National Guard to the border on Wednesday, saying “I want residents in southern New Mexico to know we are taking this border violence very seriously.” Meanwhile in Washington, we saw the sort of bold, decisive action we've long come to expect from the feds when it comes to the border. Napolitano offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Krentz's killer. This, from a woman who two years ago pleaded with her predecessor for troops at the border. Napolitano's press aides didn't return a call to explain this week's curious lack of response from the official now responsible for the security of the homeland – presumably including the open back door here in her own home state...more

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