Jan Brewer Defends Immigration Crackdown, Says Mexico 'Controlled By Drug Cartels'

During a Sunday appearance on NBC's "Meet The Press," Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer defended her state's crackdown on immigration as a necessary response to drug violence in Mexico, saying that the Mexican government is operated by drug-runners.

"The whole state of Mexico is being controlled by drug cartels and all of that crime is coming across our border and Arizona is the gateway," Brewer said.

Arizona's anti-immigrant law, SB 1070, which allows police to jail immigrants who fail to present proper documents, has become a template for similar laws in Georgia, South Carolina, Indiana and Alabama. Although the phrase "illegal immigration" is frequently deployed in American politics, entering the United States without appropriate documentation has always been only a civil offense at the federal level, not a crime. Arizona's law, however, makes it a criminal state misdemeanor to live within the state's geographic borders without federal government documentation.

Also on HuffPost:

Comments

[tripas de leche]

02:02 AM on 04/29/2012

Drugs, money, human trafficking, weapons, etc. have been going back and forth between the US and Mexico as long as I can remember and I'm coming up on 60. Cops infiltrate the bad guys and the bad guys do the same thing on both sides. We have never had a border with Mexico. Our country could have built one if it wanted to, but it never happened. These stories are quite popular right now because we don't have anything else to focus on. Once the economy picks up and we all have plenty of money again, these stories will fade to black, but the activities will continue as always.

[Mary Hartwick]

07:31 PM on 03/13/2012

I can not wait to go there this summer and get arrested for driving whole being brown and they lock me up because I do not travel with my birth certificate. Then they will have some fire on there hands I'm brown because I am Native American over 1/2 and throw in some Black, German, Irish probably Black Irish, Dutch. But, I am Brown, thats my skin color, get used to it America. I have a lot of relatives all shades of brown. And choke on it, because we are all collage educated. We fought in WWII, Korea, VN, Iraq And are serving right now. You know if you check your DNA there might be some surprises.

[leonarclark]

04:39 PM on 03/06/2012

recallbrewer.com
Once again, this extremist/racist governor Jan Brewer desperately...like the rest of her right wing fascist friends pull out the old tried and true trump card of racial hate to try and get her and her right wing extremist friends electoral victory in Novermber. She...like the leaders in Rwanda don't care about using the lowest common denominator of hate for political power. All Jan Brewer cares about is furthering her own political ambitions at the expense of people with brown skin !
Help us to recall this racist governor ! Go to recallbrewer.com to help us this Sat and Sun in Tucson Arizona get signatures !
Leonard Clark :) recallbrewer.com
chair of committee to recall extremist Arizona governor Jan Brewer.

[hagenjr]

03:45 AM on 03/04/2012

Its good to see a governor stand up for the people of her state.

35,000 dead in the last 4 years in mexican drug violence. Thats more dead then we have had in a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Certianly sounds like the cartels are running the show.

[Just-a-Guy]

03:04 PM on 02/28/2012

Simple solution.

You stay on your side. We'll stay on our side.

I have no problem not visiting Veracruz or Cancun ever again.

[rt1027]

08:15 AM on 02/29/2012

agreed

[spytheweb]

01:11 PM on 02/28/2012

Either you want to enforce the law or you don't. If you are a law breaker, you don't want the law enforced.

[drum950]

10:07 AM on 02/28/2012

Go get 'em Gov..............

[aearthling59]

09:45 AM on 02/28/2012

This governor has her hands full. Her state has been the prime area for drugs and the illegal invasion into the US. Instead of getting help with troops to beef up the border patrol she gets sued. Then, the president of the United States brings a complaint against her with the UN Commission on Human Rights. Who is on this commission? Libya, Iran, Mexico and about a fifty more to sit in judgment of an internal matter.

[rt1027]

08:16 AM on 02/29/2012

it is time to defund the UN

[Carmen Madonna Campos]

05:30 PM on 02/27/2012

H8RS GONNA H8 - ALL THE TIME!

[FedUpLady]

01:42 PM on 02/27/2012

Create jobs by building a bullet train from our Federal prisons housing illegal Mexican criminals at outrageous costs to the Mexican border. Next load our Congress on it. Take them to the border at Juarez and release them into Mexico. Next, create more jobs and place motion sensor machine guns all along the borders. Guns won't take bribes. See how well our Politicians enjoy living the good life in Mexico.

[luvobama]

01:33 PM on 02/27/2012

Just like the rest of those Swamp People in the Republican Party. On the wrong side of history. Using fear and loathing to control their masses of we.ir.dos. I tire of the spread of lies and mis truths. You can tell this is an election cycle. Rally the base of the base!!

[jspbeef]

02:15 PM on 02/27/2012

Typical of libs. Make it vicious and personal.

[luvobama]

02:18 PM on 02/27/2012

You really can't dispute what I said huh? Truth sometimes hurts.

[jspbeef]

02:57 PM on 02/27/2012

I can dispute the fact that anyone will be better for the country than Obama all day long.

[AbsoluteTruthiness]

05:03 PM on 02/27/2012

I've totally axed all Repubs from my list of friends and even acquaintances. These people have absolutely nothing in common with me and their base moral code is so skewed, I simply don't want their energy near me. However, a few of them just don't understand that I've kicked them out of my life. Do you ever get those awful, lie-filled chain letters that they are prone to forward? (And do they even have an original thought in their heads, or do they simply forward every lie and bit of drivel that comes from Faux News false reporting?)

THAT'S how the lies and mistruths are spread. They are spred via email chain letters (complete with those cartoons of that old woman, whatever her name is) from one brainless stooge to another.

[aearthling59]

09:49 AM on 02/28/2012

You know I've done that with Democrats and I use to be one. Can't stand their name calling, distorted facts, inability to rationalize facts, and are too gullible believing everything they are told without looking at the other side. After Kennedy the party should have been dissolved.

[rltballer]

01:10 PM on 02/27/2012

Hey Jan. Follow the US law. Don't overstep your bounds. Here in TN we don't have that problem. I don't feel my twx dollars should be wasted for a.problem that doesn't exist. Prove the Mexican government is controlled by cartels. Don't just say it. Then maybe we can talk.

[dtairtime]

03:49 PM on 02/27/2012

"Here in TN we don't have that problem."

I didn't realize TN was on the border with mexico.

Of course you don't have that problem! Until you do or you move to AZ why not let those who DO have that problem and DO live on the border make their own decisions without some armchair quarterback living a far away trying to decide for them?

[AbsoluteTruthiness]

05:09 PM on 02/27/2012

Actually, they DO have a problem. The deep south is crawling with illegal migrant workers. However, the 'locals' choose to ignore them because after all, they're now doing the work that the locals didn't want to do.

If rltballer thinks that they don't have migrants and illegals, he/she needs to really pay attention to what happened in Alabama. Alabama enacted a law about checking immigrant status of children in the schools and voila! MASSIVE numbers of children 'disappeared', as did the rental housing income in the area, as did the retail in the area.

To pretend they have no problems in these non-border states is ridiculous, no matter what your stand is on immigration issues.

It's an issue in every state. Odd how many of those states are 'red', isn't it? Notice how Texas doesn't make the fuss Arizona's gov does. Why? Because the right depends on these workers to continue to pad their wallets.

[rt1027]

08:18 AM on 02/29/2012

well said

[DANIELISTICALL]

01:04 PM on 02/27/2012

during George Lopez's HBO special Tall, Dark and Chicano he forcefully warned all the Republicans who voted against Sonia Sotomayor's appointment to the Supreme Court, "To all of you who voted 'No,' I'd like to take this opportunity to say...You'll never get the Latino vote now...You won't win a pinche pie-eating contest!" This got us thinking about the real world ramifications of the Sotomayor vote in the 2012 elections.

[aearthling59]

09:53 AM on 02/28/2012

They didn't vote against her because she was Latino they voted against her because of her left leaning views.

[rt1027]

08:19 AM on 02/29/2012

agreed

[Carmen Madonna Campos]

12:59 PM on 02/27/2012

final word:

Illegal immigration is a problem in this country particularly for border states.
If Arizona wishes to deal with this problem in the manner they have, go for it.

However, the vitriol and outright h8 i have be subjected to on this thread for being an educated Latina has been indicative of the fears and h8red that are cultivated in the beautiful land that is Arizona.

And to those, who wish to insult me by addressing the manner in which i express myself on these pages. Read some magazines like The New Yorker, of Rolling Stone, of even The Economist, perhaps even HuffingtonPost online. Writers of the 21st century are not constrained by the mores and archaic journalistic language of prior centuries.

We can say something is BS when it is.
Cuz that's how we roll.

Arizona, you're a beautiful land - too bad they took it away from the Navajos. Yatahey.

[mikrusher]

01:17 PM on 02/27/2012

"If Arizona wishes to deal with this problem in the manner they have, go for it."

Eeeeh. What does banning Mexican-American literature in schools have to do with illegal immigration? Arizona's laws, and general attitude, are anti-Mexican, not just anti-illegal immigration.

[Carmen Madonna Campos]

01:38 PM on 02/27/2012

no dude. those who see no advantage to multi-cultural studies are doomed to stay ignorant.

School Boards are the ones who make those decisions. I would hope for an enlightened citizenry to advocate for good educational policies.

i wholly agree with you.

[Karissa36]

02:43 PM on 02/28/2012

There are no books banned in Arizona. Just one school district has to change their Mexican American Studies program, which was based on MecCA fantasy, not history.

[Brian Hanrahan]

06:42 PM on 02/27/2012

CMC,
'Too bad they took it (Arizona) away from the Navajos' is an oversimplification of a complex issue that saw more powerful cultures/ethnicities run off/annihilate weaker strains thoughout the history of our nation. After the uber-powerful Comanches ran the Apaches out of what is now Texas, they settled in New Mexico and Arizona in the area of what is today largely the Fort Apache Indian Reservation. By then the Anasazi had already disappeared, to be replaced by Tohono O'odhams, Pueblos, Hopis, etc. After the U.S. Civil War, the issue of America's 'Indian problem' was decided by the likes of General George Crook, who subjugated/'relocated' the warring Apaches, while they partioned Indian Arizona--my state--into dozens of 'soverign nations,' of which the Navajo Nation is just one of many. Maybe history isn't done with Arizona, meaning a more stronger culture might evict us some day.

[Carmen Madonna Campos]

06:46 PM on 02/27/2012

one never knows.

[DANIELISTICALL]

12:54 PM on 02/27/2012

"There are far more reported UFO sighting than reports of impersonation at the polls," the NAACP report said, "with a grand total of nine suspected fraudulent votes that could have been prevented by restrictive photo ID laws since 2000 -- a period in which over 400 million votes were cast in general elections alone."
"With in-person electoral fraud occurring at the rate of 0.000002 percent, an individual is more likely to be struck by lightning than to impersonate another voter at the polls."

[Robert Godwin]

02:30 PM on 02/27/2012

Kinda hard to catch them cheating when no one is allowed to check them out. So your defense is moot. Its like saying if the blind man did not see it, there is no proof.

[spytheweb]

01:18 PM on 02/28/2012

"I vote every year," Hinako Dennett told NBC2.
The Cape Coral resident is not a US citizen, yet she's registered to vote.

NBC2 found Dennett after reviewing her jury excusal form. She told the Clerk of Court she couldn't serve as a juror because she wasn't a U.S. citizen.

We found her name, and nearly a hundred others like her, in the database of Florida registered voters.

Naples resident Yvonne Wigglesworth is also a not a citizen, but is registered to vote. She claims she doesn't know how she got registered.
"I have no idea. I mean, how am I supposed to know."

Records show Wigglesworth voted six times in elections dating back eleven years."

http://www.nbc-2.com/story/16662854/2012/02/02/nbc2-investigates-voter-fraud