Arizona Governor Jan Brewer,with her severely limited community college education and intellect, accidental governorship, is engaging in more cheap political opportunism with her claim that "illegal immigrants are drug smugglers"
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer,with her severely limited community college education and intellect, accidental governorship, is engaging in more cheap political opportunism with her claim that “illegal immigrants are drug smugglers”
During a debate June 15, Brewer lashed out at an opponents assertions that immigrants “just want to work”.
“The majority of them, in my opinion and I think in the opinion of law enforcement, is that they’re not coming here to work. They’re coming here and they’re bringing drugs, and they’re doing drop houses, and they’re extorting people, and they’re terrorizing the families,” Brewer said in the debate with candidate Matt Jette.
What an airhead, but then, she is a blonde. (No offense to other blondes with intelligence.)
Later, she reiterated her point which is without justification and void of any truth.
“I believe today, under the circumstances that we’re facing, that the majority of the illegal trespassers that are coming into the state of Arizona are under the direction and control of organized drug cartels and they are bringing drugs in.”
Tim Stellar, reporting on these developments, asked Brandon Judd, President of the Tucson sector chapter of the Border Patrol Union if any of this was correct, and his answer was an emphatic NO!
EJ Montini of the Arizona Republic takes it a step further.
Sadly, Arizona politicians have figured out that getting elected means convincing voters that they are tougher on immigration issues than the other guys. This leads to a little… exaggeration.
Candidates who should know better say that crime is out of control along the border when FBI Uniform Crime Reports indicate that crime rates in border towns like Nogales, Douglas and Yuma haven’t changed much in ten years.
Candidates say that nothing has been done to secure the border when, for example, the Border Patrol has grown from 10,000 agents in 2004 to more than 20,000 today.
As for Gov. Brewer’s claim that the “majority” of illegal immigrants are coming here to sell drugs and extort families, the Department of Homeland security estimates that nearly half of the illegal immigrants in the U.S. actually entered legally on visas but never left. As for those who crossed illegally, I asked Sheriff Joe Arpaio if he believes that the majority of them were drug-smuggling extortionists.
“Well, they’re criminals when they cross the border,” he said.
Granted, but don’t most of them come to work?
“Yeah,” Arpaio said.
After all, if the majority were drug smuggling extortionists why would so many of them have to do things like cut grass in 110-degree heat?
Brewer correctly points out that Arizona has a problem with drug smuggling, drop houses, kidnapping and extortion. There is a special unit within the Phoenix Police Department fighting those crimes. For a column a while back I asked a Phoenix police spokesman what living in the world’s so-called “kidnapping capital” means for the average Phoenix resident.
He said, “We’re talking about drop houses where people who have used coyotes to get into the country may be held for ransom. And we’re talking about the kidnapping of smugglers and associates. I have no fear that my kids or grandkids will be victims. Or that E.J. Montini will be a victim.”
I asked the governor’s office if it could explain her debate comments, but got no response. Not that we need one. The answer is obvious:
It’s an election year.
Later, Brewer issued a “clarification” of her previous statement.
“There has been some media attention in the last several hours regarding statements I made this morning regarding the level of drug and crime activity being perpetrated by illegal immigrants coming into and residing in Arizona. The simple truth is that the majority of human smuggling in our state is under the direction of the drug cartels, which are by definition smuggling drugs.
“It is common knowledge that Mexican drug cartels have merged human smuggling with drug trafficking. For example, the Los Angeles Times on March 23, 2009 reported, ‘The business of smuggling humans across the Mexican border has been brisk, with many thousands coming across every year. But smugglers affiliated with the drug cartels have taken the enterprise to a new level – and made it more violent – by commandeering much of the operation from independent coyotes, according to these officials and recent congressional testimonies.’ This article and many federal government reports have drawn the same conclusions.
“The human rights violations that have taken place victimizing immigrants and their families are abhorrent. Border crossers are used by drug cartels as commodities. Mexican drug cartels have merged human smugglers who use their expertise in gathering intelligence on border patrols, logistics and communication devices to get around even tighter controls. U.S. border officials have stated that traffickers are gaining control of much of the illegal passage of immigrants from Mexico to the United States.”
This broad ain’t got a clue, perhaps the reason she’s the darling of the peckerwoods in Arizona.
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