Napolitano says U.S., Mexico see border violence as shared

Napolitano says U.S., Mexico see border violence as shared problem
August 11, 2009 | 12:11 pm
One day after President Obama concluded a summit in Mexico, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said today that creating a secure southwestern border required addressing several issues at the same time: illegal immigration, drug trafficking and violence in Mexico.

“For the past eight years or so, the federal government’s approach to the southwest border was to … treat it as something to be dealt with separate from our nation’s broader challenges,” she said. “These things are inextricably linked.”

Napolitano said the U.S. government is cooperating with the Mexican government more than ever before to battle violence in both countries.

“For really the first time," she said, "our two countries are treating this issue of the drug cartels and border-related violence as a shared problem,” citing the drugs flowing north and guns and cash flowing south.

Napolitano spoke during a conference on border security in El Paso, Texas, just across the border from Ciudad Juarez, which has taken center stage in the deadly drug wars.

The conference brought together political leaders from both sides of the border along with the head of the Border Patrol and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Napolitano did not, however, detail how negotiations for comprehensive immigration reform were going other than to tell reporters that the dialogue was underway and she was working to build support.

Congressman Bob Filner (D-San Diego) said he and others have been pushing for legislation but have been disappointed in the administration.

“We don’t sense that Obama thinks it can happen now,” he said. “And if he waits until next year, it won’t happen.”

During the Mexican summit on Monday, Obama said that passage of legislative reforms would have to wait until 2010.


-- Anna Gorman in El Paso, Texas