WASHINGTON — Responding to protests from state leaders in the Southwest, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has offered tighter coordination between federal agencies and police in Arizona and New Mexico to deal with problems caused by illegal immigration.
He sent a letter to Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano on Monday accepting her offer of state police officers to help federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents quickly deport undocumented immigrants.
Chertoff agreed to work with state police as they "target the violent human smuggling trade."
Pati Urias, a spokeswoman for Napolitano, said Tuesday that the letter was a response to three offers from the governor since the beginning of July.
"It's good to see that they're starting to move," Urias said.
Chertoff called New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson on Tuesday to assure him that the Bush administration would work with state officials toward stemming the tide of illegal immigrants.
Richardson said in an interview that Chertoff told him Congress would authorize an additional 1,000 Border Patrol agents, a number of whom would go to the understaffed New Mexico border.
The border also would receive enhanced technology such as infrared cameras, Richardson said.
"I felt for the first time that the Homeland Security Department is listening to New Mexico," Richardson said.
"We're very seriously undermanned in the very porous New Mexico border."
The more conciliatory statements from the two Democratic governors followed weeks of growing impatience as they awaited a federal response. In a letter Aug. 11, Napolitano wrote, "I am increasingly disappointed by the red tape my staff has encountered within the Dept. of Homeland Security.... ICE representatives said they are unwilling to enter into a memorandum of understanding with our state to enforce immigration laws."
Last week, both governors declared states of emergency for counties along their states' borders with Mexico. Local authorities said they needed emergency money to deal with situations as diverse as goading cattle back to watering holes frequented by migrants and storing bodies after smugglers' vans crash on the highway.
Department of Homeland Security spokesman Jarrod Agen said that the moves this week did not represent a significant shift in policy.
The increased federal manpower for New Mexico was already in the works, Agen said, and the "Tucson corridor" has been the agency's top priority for immigration enforcement for more than a year.
