Border Security

At a time when illegal immigration has returned to the political spotlight, figures released Wednesday show a sharp decline in the number of undocumented migrants crossing the U.S. border, in what researchers are calling the "first significant reversal" in 20 years. The total number of illegal immigrants living in the U.S. dropped to 11.1 million in 2009, down from a peak of 12 million in 2007, according to estimates by the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan Washington-based group that studies the nation's Latino population.

In a part homecoming and part farewell, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is expected to return to the House chamber for President Obama's State of the Union speech as she bows out of public life to focus on her recovery. The Arizona Democrat has left an indelible mark on Congress during her three terms in office, and Tuesday's appearance is expected to be an emotional one. After Giffords she was shot in the head while meeting with constituents a year ago in her Tucson district, calls for political civility prompted lawmakers to cross party lines to sit beside one another during the president's speech.

Even those who are appalled by Arizona's harsh new immigration law — as we are — recognize that the state's misguided decision to take federal matters into its own legislative hands did not come out of the blue. Arizona is the preferred superhighway for drug and human smugglers. Phoenix is the kidnapping capital of the nation, and almost all of those abducted are either illegal immigrants or linked to the drug trade. The recent killing of a rancher in southern Arizona has increased the sense of lawlessness and danger at the border; police believe the killer was involved with drug trafficking.

Trying to blunt a backlash from Republicans who balked at his support for tuition benefits for children of illegal immigrants, Rick Perry sought to reassure voters of his law-and-order credentials Tuesday: He brought in Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona to vouch for his toughness on border security. Pledging to "detain and deport every illegal alien who is apprehended in this country," Perry repeatedly promised to devote thousands of National Guard troops, as well as Border Patrol agents, to securing the border within a year.

Congress gave final approval Thursday to a $600-million border security package that President Obama had sought to tighten the border with Mexico — a move supporters hope will open a broader political discussion on comprehensive immigration reform. The Senate gave quick final approval to the measure in an unusual special session that was arranged to rectify an earlier procedural glitch. The House had passed the bill without dissent Tuesday, and Obama is expected to sign it Friday.

The Obama administration formally asked Congress on Tuesday for $600 million in emergency funds to hire another 1,000 Border Patrol agents, acquire two drones and enhance security along the Southwest border. The money would also pay for an additional 160 Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and extra Border Patrol canine teams, according to a senior White House official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. In a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D- San Francisco)

In a part homecoming and part farewell, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is expected to return to the House chamber for President Obama's State of the Union speech as she bows out of public life to focus on her recovery. The Arizona Democrat has left an indelible mark on Congress during her three terms in office, and Tuesday's appearance is expected to be an emotional one. After Giffords she was shot in the head while meeting with constituents a year ago in her Tucson district, calls for political civility prompted lawmakers to cross party lines to sit beside one another during the president's speech.

The Republican governor of Arizona, Jan Brewer, calls her state "the gateway to America for drug trafficking, extortion, kidnapping and crime." She blames the federal government for failing to secure the border with Mexico. Her Democratic predecessor, Janet Napolitano, now the country's Homeland Security secretary, counters that the Southwestern border "is as secure now as it has ever been." The dispute over just how much border security is enough looms as the biggest impediment to any attempt by the Obama administration and Congress to overhaul the nation's immigration laws.

One day after President Obama concluded a summit in Mexico, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Tuesday that securing the Southwest border required targeting several issues at the same time: illegal immigration, drug trafficking and violence in Mexico. Napolitano said her strategy was unlike the Bush administration's, when "the issue of the Southwest border was walled off from all other issues." "Our approach is to view Southwest border security, along with enforcement of our immigration laws in the interior of the country, counter-narcotics enforcement and streamlined citizenship processes together," she said.

A $600-million bill to beef up border security should have been on its way to President Obama for signature after the House approved it Tuesday, but instead it has been derailed by a procedural glitch that requires a do-over by the Senate — which has adjourned until September. The technical misstep embarrassed congressional leaders and put the brakes on quick approval of funding for Obama's plan to deploy another 1,500 Border Patrol and other law enforcement personnel along the border with Mexico.

It was just days after she nearly lost her life, and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords had just emerged from a coma. But the Arizona Democrat managed to send a message to President Obama about border security as he came to her bedside. It was Giffords' husband, Mark Kelly, who appealed to Obama on her behalf as he came to Tucson to visit with her and speak at a memorial service for the victims of the Jan. 8 shooting spree. In a new book, "Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope," Kelly writes that before Obama arrived he had asked Giffords' chief of staff what the three-term Democrat would say to the president if she'd had the opportunity for a meeting.

In 1979, in my hometown of Riverside, my father came home one evening with news from the linen plant where he worked. A group of women whose job it was to wash, dry, iron and stack hospital linen had been taken away by immigration officials that day. They were undocumented workers from Mexico and would be deported. I was 18 when I heard this, and I couldn't stop thinking about the likelihood that the deported women had left children behind. What if one had been forced to leave her children with a neighbor she didn't like or trust, just for that morning, because she had no one else?

Frustrated in its bid to restart peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians, the international group known as the Mideast quartet is pushing both sides to submit detailed proposals for borders of a Palestinian state and measures to ensure Israel's long-term security, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Tuesday. Blair, who serves as envoy for the quartet — consisting of the U.S., Russia, the European Union and United Nations — will discuss the latest approach during separate meetings Wednesday in Jerusalem and Ramallah.

Gov. Jerry Brown is under increasing pressure to suspend California's participation in the controversial federal immigration enforcement program known as Secure Communities. The program requires state and local police to share the fingerprints of anyone who is arrested with federal officials, who then check them against their own databases to determine the arrestee's immigration status. In theory, Secure Communities sounds like a sensible idea. It was sold to Congress as a way for the federal government to use its limited resources to nab dangerous immigrants who have a history of criminal convictions.

Four years ago, Arizona Rep. Jeff Flake emerged as a moderate Republican leader whose support for comprehensive immigration reform raised hopes that a long-awaited fix was finally possible. Last month, however, just weeks after announcing his candidacy to replace retiring Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), Flake withdrew his support. He said concern about insecurity along the border and Mexico's bloody drug wars were behind his political change of heart. Last year, another moderate Arizona Republican, Sen. John McCain, ended his decade-long backing for a broad overhaul of the immigration system by signing on to an enforcement-only plan.

Congressional Republicans are drafting legislation that would require the federal government to develop a plan to add more fencing, sensors, agents and even drones to stop every illegal entry into the United States. The legislative effort offers another example of how a more conservative Congress has steered the immigration debate away from the Obama administration's two-pronged push for reforms and improved border security, and toward strict enforcement of immigration laws. In December, a lame-duck House controlled by Democrats passed the Dream Act, a reform that would have created a path to citizenship for some young illegal immigrants in the U.S., but it was narrowly defeated in the Senate.

A new front has opened in the centuries-old battle over preserving federal lands in the West, with some advocates of a tighter border arguing that designating some lands as wilderness ? meaning they are so precious that no mechanized vehicle can enter ? hinders border security. The U.S. Border Patrol and other law enforcement agencies can take vehicles into wilderness areas while chasing lawbreakers. But to patrol the lands by vehicle, plant sensors or build operating bases, they must get permission from the federal agency controlling the region.

National Guard troops arrived Monday at California's border with Mexico to temporarily assist federal authorities with security and crowd control. The first wave of about 260 Guard troops will assist Immigration and Naturalization Service officers at the San Ysidro port of entry in San Diego and the state's five other border crossings.

Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head and critically injured Saturday morning during a meet-and-greet with constituents at a Tucson supermarket. As many as 18 other people, possibly including members of the congresswoman's staff, were shot and six were dead, the Pima County Sheriff's Department said. Giffords, 40, a Democrat recently sworn in to her third term in Congress, was undergoing surgery, according to Northwest Medical Center spokeswoman Darci Slaten. Nine other victims, including a child, were also at the hospital in critical or serious condition, she said.

A new front has opened in the centuries-old battle over preserving federal lands in the West, with some advocates of a tighter border arguing that designating some lands as wilderness ? meaning they are so precious that no mechanized vehicle can enter ? hinders border security. The U.S. Border Patrol and other law enforcement agencies can take vehicles into wilderness areas while chasing lawbreakers. But to patrol the lands by vehicle, plant sensors or build operating bases, they must get permission from the federal agency controlling the region.