As U.S. Mexico Coalition Announces Decline In Border Crime Arizona Governor Sues Government Over Immigrant Invasion

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer announced yesterday that she intends to sue the federal government for failure to enforce immigration laws. Alan Beard Rau and Ginger Rough of the Arizona Republic have the full story here, Governor Brewer's quotes are here:

Gov. Jan Brewer said the intent of the lawsuit is to force the federal government to protect Arizonans.

"The first and foremost issue we're facing right now is the security, safety and welfare of our citizens," Brewer said. "The federal government needs to step up and do their job."

Ironically, the same day that Governor Brewer made her countersuit, The Alliance to Combat Transnational Threats, a conglomerate of U.S. Border Patrol, Mexican federal police and 60 American agencies, announced that Crime along the border was down. Laura Rozen of Politico, has the full story up here, and some quotes up from the Director of U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Alan Bersin are below:

Speaking in Tucson on Tuesday, Bersin lauded the joint operation for its ability to "deter, disrupt and interdict" criminal activity that threatens the border. As a result of this cooperation between the neighboring countries, there will no longer be the "pointing of fingers."  "Rather, drugs going north and guns going south would be seen as part of the same vicious cycle," he said.

I guess Governor Brewer didn't get the memo that violence is down along the border... In the interest of fairness, below is a video of Nogales AZ, Mayor Arturo Garino, taken at the U.S. Mexico Border Mayors Conference. In the video he emphatically states that the border is safe, and that all of the rhetoric about it being violent is not true.

After watching the video above, one must wonder why Governor Brewer seems to willfully ignore a mayor in her own state. A mayor who clearly lives on the Border, and has more interactions on the Border then Governor Brewer does.

Perhaps she likes being on T.V. or seeing her name in the paper, what could the harm in that be?

If you ask people like U.S. Mexico border Mayor Garino, it is plenty harmful.

In a time when the economy is so bad, when Arizona faces historic budget windfalls and very real challenges shouldn't the Governor fixate on actually dealing with real problems facing the people of Arizona.