[upchuck]

EL PASO, Texas - U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said Thursday that security on the southern U.S. border “is better now than it ever has been” and that violence from neighboring Mexico hasn’t spilled over in a serious way.

Napolitano spoke at the Bridge of The Americas border crossing, after a meeting with the mayors of the border towns of El Paso, Nogales, Ariz., and Yuma, Ariz. Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade Francisco Sanchez and U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Alan Bersin also were present.

Napolitano said the Department of Homeland Security will deploy 250 more border agents and expects to have 300 more under their next budget if it’s approved. She stated that Homeland Security is investing “millions of dollars in the side of commerce and trade” to improve infrastructure and technology along the border.

[hinckley buzzard]

I wonder how she explains the government signs along Intersate 8 halfway between Tucson and Phoenix and points west, warning travelers of the danger of drug smugglers and people traffickers in the area. Sure never had those before, and that's a cool 100 miles North of the border.

[bgill]

She wasn’t standing on the bridge when bullets came across hitting the Univeristy of Texas at El Paso so all’s good, huh. They’ve had to close the campus twice. Same thing happened to the UT campus at Brownsville, but hey, no one was killed in the violence that spilled over so let’s not take it seriously.