Ariz. Democrats Blast Obama's Immigration Stance

Arizona Democrats, under siege because of President Barack Obama’s attacks on the state’s popular immigration law, are blasting his contentions that the southern border is secure.

Arizona Democratic Reps. Ann Kirkpatrick, Harry Mitchell and Gabrielle Giffords joined a growing Republican chorus in denouncing President Barack Obama for not pushing for more specific action in his Thursday speech on the nation’s immigration and border security issues, according to The Hill.

Obama said that the U.S.-Mexico border is more secure today than at any time in the past 20 years. But this ignores the fact that Mexico has levels of violence worse now than either Iraq or Afghanistan, and large sections of the border are ruled by drug cartels.

“The crisis on America’s borders won’t be addressed with words,” Giffords told The Hill. “I was disappointed to hear the president give short shrift to border security concerns by saying that our nation’s southern border is more secure today than at any time in the past 20 years.

“That is not a sign of progress, it is a statement on the poor job we have done in securing the border for the past two decades.”

Arizonans certainly don’t feel safe. They continue to call for more to be done to secure the borders. The first- and second-term Arizona Democrats are increasingly bucking their own party’s stance on border security.

“As any politician knows, it is easier to make speeches than it is to make progress, and we need more than talk from the White House and Congress right now,” Kirkpatrick told The Hill.

The intra-party criticism comes as the House last week passed the fiscal year 2010 Supplemental Appropriations Bill, which includes $700 million in border security funds, including $50 million to deploy National Guard troops to the border states.

Read more at The Hill.