Texas Insider Report: EL PASO Texas Numbers are in the right direction and dramatically so said U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano Thursday before adding that security on the southern U.S. border is better now than it ever has been and that violence from neighboring Mexico hasnt 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 and Nogales & Yuma Ariz.
Napolitano said the Department of Homeland Security will deploy 250 more border agents and expects to have 300 more under their next budget if its 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.
However she added that there is a need to correct wrong impressions about the border region. Napolitano said border towns are safe for travel trade and commerce. She noted that the total value of imports crossing the Southwest border was up 22 percent in fiscal year 2010 she said.
There is a perception that the border is worse now than it ever has been. That is wrong. The border is better now than it ever has been she said.
The perception that the violence in Mexico has spilled over to bordering U.S. cities is wrong again Napolitano said. Violent crime rates have remained flat
or decreased in border communities in the Southwest she said.
However she recognized that there is much to do with (their) colleagues in Mexico in respect to the drug cartels that are largely responsible for the unprecedented wave of violence in that country.
El Paso Mayor John Cook said his city has been ranked the safest city in the country of its size despite being across the border from Ciudad Juarez which is at the center of Mexicos drug cartel violence.
The lie about border cities being dangerous has been told so many times that people are starting to believe it but we as border communities have to speak out Cook sad.
Napolitano cited a reduction of 36 percent in the number of illegal immigrant detentions a key number to estimate the total of illegal border crossings and the increase in trade as reasons to believe the situation along the border has
improved.
Still she stressed that she didnt come to El Paso to run a victory lap and that there is much work to do.
Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade Francisco Sanchez and U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Alan Bersin also were present.
