Rival Arizona Candidates Talk Tough On Immigration
...The race for Arizona's 8th Congressional District is focused on the U.S.-Mexico border. It's where an Arizona rancher was killed last March, possibly by Mexican drug runners. That incident and the battle over the state's new immigration law are prompting some tough talk from the candidates.
...Democrat Gabrielle Giffords, the two-term incumbent, can't afford to look soft, so there isn't any talk of immigration reform. Instead, she reminds voters how she fought to get $600 million for border security this summer.
Blaming Washington
"We're going to bring as many resources to stop this problem so we can go on and focus on other issues for the state of Arizona," she recently told an audience in northwest Tucson. -- She went on to blame the "federal government's inaction and inability to secure [the] ... border."
Rival Attacks Democrats' Position
...Giffords voted to fund the 700 miles of border fencing and vehicle barrier now in place, but Kelly wants a double-layer fence for the entire 2,100 miles of border. Giffords opposed S.B. 1070, but she also urged the U.S. Justice Department not to sue Arizona over the law, which it did.
American Patrol Report
Giffords was one of seven House members who signed a letter urging the leadership to kill a Senate bill that would have finished the fence. It did. She wasn't in Congress when the original bill was passed. She voted for an amendment to move Secure Fence Act money around -- but not for vehicle barriers -- they weren't in the bill.
In a related story -
Glenn Spencer challenges Giffords
Giffords Fights Fence - Arizona Congresswoman Opposes Security Measure
American Patrol Report -- July 17
According to an Associated Press report Arizona Congresswoman Gabriel Giffords has joined six other Democrat lawmakers and signed a letter urging House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic House leaders to keep a requirement for double layer fencing out of a final Homeland Security spending bill.
Giffords' district includes the headquarters of American Border Patrol, the site of a Fourth of July border banner demanding the completing of the border fence. The banner made headline news in the Sierra Vista Herald on the Fourth of July. One of Giffords' two district offices is in Sierra Vista.
Fencing along the border has helped stem the flood of illegal aliens and drugs into Giffords' district, but the government has not finished the job. "It is incredible to me that an elected representative would take steps to defeat a system that has already proven to improve safety and security," (see today's NY Times) said Glenn Spencer of the American Patrol Report.
Spencer said one of the most vulnerable spots on the border is a stretch just south of the Ft. Huachuca, headquarters of Army intelligence.
It has no fence at all, he says. It is in Giffords' district. "I hope voters ask Giffords why she does not want to protect their country, to say nothing of a sensitive Army facility," Spencer added.
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