Like many of Arizona’s elected officials, Governor Jan Brewer has offered her condolences to the family of slain Border Patrol Agent Nicolas Ivie, who was killed this morning while on patrol.
Unlike many of Arizona’s elected officials, Brewer decided to give her statement a political bent, wagging her finger (mournfully!) at the federal government for their “failure” at securing our border with Mexico.
“What happens next has become all-too-familiar in Arizona. Flags will be lowered in honor of the slain agent. Elected officials will vow to find those responsible. Arizonans and Americans will grieve, and they should. But this ought not only be a day of tears. There should be anger, too. Righteous anger — at the kind of evil that causes sorrow this deep, and at the federal failure and political stalemate that has left our border unsecured and our Border Patrol in harm’s way. Four fallen agents in less than two years is the result.
“It has been 558 days since the Obama administration declared the security of the U.S.-Mexico border ‘better now than it has ever been.’ I’ll remember that statement today.”
We could all go into in-depth debates regarding deportation numbers, or traffic numbers of undocumented immigrants over the past number of years (and undoubtedly Brewer would claim credit for anything positive) but today just isn’t the day, Governor.
Capitalizing on the event of a man dying in the service of his country to look down upon policies you disagree with isn’t right and, strangely, tends to make you look like an ass.
The governor’s full statement can be seen below the jump.
“Arizona has lost another Border Patrol agent.
“In the dark hours before daybreak, one agent was killed and another injured while on-duty along Arizona’s southern border. It is believed they were responding to an alerted ground sensor in a remote area near Bisbee, a short distance north of the border. In a tragic coincidence, these agents were assigned to Brian Terry Station — newly dedicated and named for a U.S. Border Patrol agent murdered under similar circumstances in Arizona less than two years ago.
“More recently, in May 2011, we lost two more agents — Eduardo Rojas, Jr. and Hector Clark — when they were killed in a vehicle accident while pursuing suspected drug smugglers near Gila Bend.
“What happens next has become all-too-familiar in Arizona. Flags will be lowered in honor of the slain agent. Elected officials will vow to find those responsible. Arizonans and Americans will grieve, and they should. But this ought not only be a day of tears. There should be anger, too. Righteous anger — at the kind of evil that causes sorrow this deep, and at the federal failure and political stalemate that has left our border unsecured and our Border Patrol in harm’s way. Four fallen agents in less than two years is the result.
“It has been 558 days since the Obama administration declared the security of the U.S.-Mexico border ‘better now than it has ever been.’ I’ll remember that statement today.”
This article appears in Sep 27 – Oct 3, 2012.
I love Governor Jan Brewer for what she does. She is TRYING to get the federal government to do their job so that no more young families have to wait for a husband or a Dad who will never be coming home again. If you can’t ‘get that’, then you are the one who has a serious problem.
^ Yikes. I hope you don’t breed.
This really doesn’t sound much different from any other political pandering one hears.
She has a right to be enraged – at a government that arms the criminals who stalk our protectors – at a government that chooses to ignore pleas for protection from its diplomatic core, only to attend social functions when those diplomats are threatened and murdered – mere bumps in the road…
Honestly, it was fine until that last paragraph. How about “I hope that federal, state, and local governments can learn from this tragedy and work together to find practical solutions to these problems, which have consequences beyond politics every day they remain unsolved.”
Really Jan? I feel for the family who lost a loved one, but their job is to secure the border, right Jan? Hence the name “Border Patrol.” They are federal employees, no?
He was a federal agent patrolling the US-Mexico border. I thought that’s what Jan wanted more of…
Gov. Brewer was absolutely right….she had no choice but to use this opportunity to highlight what she and Arizona have been trying to tell Obama, Holder, Napolitano and the whole country. We have a serious problem with illegal aliens, drug cartels, human trafficing, etc. We need to secure our border and the few Border Patrol we have to try and do the job our government won’t do, is just awful. Why is our government putting our people in harms way, even our ambassadors…duh! Yes, it is risky, but when they ask for help and more security, our government should respond. JMHO
If everyone’s so concerned about border protection (and most of us are), why aren’t the agents ON the border? I’m way up in Green Valley, and I see the BP cruising around here daily in their big gas guzzling SUVs. Then at shift changes, we see even more big gas guzzling BP SUVs speeding (like crazy) up I-19 to the Tucson HQs. So much waste. Why in the world was the HQ built so far from the border? What if all that wasted gas ($3.50+/gal) and time was put to better use ON the border? And that silly “border” checkpoint in Tubac. Seriously? Another waste of money.
– Deborah Cox
Thanks to Agent Ivie for his service. Many condolences to his family.
Jan, time to crawl back under your rock.
Always wise to put the number of tragic deaths in perspective. There have been 2 within the last 2 years out of 21,000 Border Patrol agents; 113 since the Border Patrol was formed almost a century ago.
I am saddened by this murder but angered by the politicians who use it to claim that where I live is violent and unsafe. Which is not true.
There goes the media again wasting no time in bashing Gov. Brewer. She feels for the families that have lost a loved one doing their duty in protecting our borders best they can. Gov. Brewer has all the right to jumb on the fed government for NOT doing their job. If I was Gov. I’d put Arizona National Guard/Special Arizona Ranger Unit on the border with orders to shot first ask questions later and to hell with the federal government. Time for this state to get tough, nothing will change if we don’t. Drugs. illegals, health costs, job loss, equals time for drastic action. Lay off Gov. Brewer, help her instead.
Peace be with the families of agent Ivie; may he rest with God.
It’s important for Jan Brewer to make the point that the most destructive forces in the history of America are still pouring over the border.
Pull your head out, the border is not safe and the numbers are not down. Napolitano has skewed the numbers to make it look as if the opposite were true in order to please her boss. It isn’t rocket science, just spend some time away from 19 and Tucson and you will see it. The cartel is in control and know the area better than most. This man’s death was not necessary, bring our troops back and secure our border.
“It’s important for Jan Brewer to make the point that the most destructive forces in the history of America are still pouring over the border.”
…and the most productive for our agriculture and service industries. No sense trying to reform immigration right now, though. The Republicans in Congress are still busy trying to make Obama a one term president.
RIP Agent Ivie. My thoughts and prayers are with your family.
Thank you for this article, it makes me ask where is their leader tight now? Is she to worried about obama’s re-election if she offered her condolences because it would look like she was wrong?
Is her chair empty also?
I’m wondering exactly where the posters live – the ranting ones that keep insisting our border is unprotected and awash in violence.
(I include Governor Brewer, of course.)
They can’t live as close to the border as I do. Where I feel totally safe, night and day.
Even when I hike and drive in the most rural areas of Santa Cruz and Cochise County.
There is a War going on right here on our Border, whether we want to admit it or not.
You have Cartels in Mexico that make the armies of 3rd world nations look like kids playing paintball.
You have spillage across our border.
Lives, unfortunately are going to be lost, and a fence isn’t going to solve that problem…hasn’t ever worked anywhere else, not even in the Korean Demilitrized zone, with 35,000 US troops guarding it.
The best way to win this war is not with political posturing, as Jan Brewer believes, but with continual upgrading or our intelligence, cooperative efforts with the Mexican Military, and vigilance on our border.
And making a political statement during a time of grief isn’t included in that mix.
Jan Brewer, it is my firmest belief, that you are one sorry human political hack…you make Rush LImbaugh look intelligent.
Let’s bury our hero and respect his family, without spin from any direction.
I think you should also be angry, as angry as Gov Brewer. We put the border patrol out in the field ill equipped to do their job. They are there to protect but lets at least give them a fighting chance of success. We have given many countries a secure border by sending them our best resources, endless resources all compliments of the fed gov. It would be nice if we could afford the same resources to those protecting our own borders!
Buenos días, Sr. Downing.
I really enjoyed reading your “spin.”
Let’s see, Ivie was on horseback on the Mexican side of the border. He was there “to secure the border.” He was doing what the feds hired him to do, and what he signed up to do. He got shot in the endeavor. I fail to see how Obama failed here. Until we stop using Mexico’s drugs, which we never will, there will be no secure border. There is too much money to be made. So it is a battle that can probably never end. But the effort has to be made. And deaths of border agents will continue to be a fact of life down here. Unfortunately.
Let’s utilize some of the prevailing anti-immigrant logic to examine this incident. If it’s true that Agent Ivie was on the Mexican side of the border then nobody outside of his family should shed tears for him at all as he was out of his country and jurisdiction, an illegal alien who deserved whatever happened to him, according to prevailing nativist thought. What part of “illegal means illegal” do those people have trouble understanding in this case?
Brewer was simply trying to score political points on the heels of the death of a Federal Agent who was doing the job he signed up to do. He knew the danger, just as every cop does when they put on the uniform. Yes, it’s tragic and sad. But say that. Do not try to make this political. It simply has nothing to do with politics. Nothing.
Jan Brewer’s father passed away when she was eleven years old.
One would think it difficult but not impossible to overcome that…
Unless the fence is bulletproof our polices are more to blame. Unless there is an endless amount of money to keep putting up what the cartels (and others) keep tearing down it simply is not feasible.
PHOENIX — Members of the Arizona Legislature’s border security advisory committee want the state to begin building a mile of fencing along the border with Mexico even though it has raised only a fraction of the needed money.
The committee has raised just 10 percent of the $2.8 million needed to complete a mile of fencing. The ultimate goal is to build 200 miles of border fencing.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/04/29/politics/main20058703.shtml
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/26/arizona-mexico-border-fence-funding_n_1832065.html
I think the folks who are stating Ivie was on the wrong side of the border should take a map reading course. Maybe they subscribe to Grijalva’s view that the border is at Casa Grande.
Romney tried to make the Libya tragedy into an “October Surprise”, and Brewer is trying to do the same with the Naco tragedy. Interesting how the right wing media tried to attack the administration for suggesting the embassy incident was terrorist related, and now that it looks like it is, are trying to attack the administration for saying it was over the crazy right-wing movie that was used to foment the unrest, as if they can change the history of their reactions at the drop of a hat. But they have found they can say anything and the choir will keep on singing. Will it turn out that the Border Patrol was fired upon by an unexpected party? People need to grieve and let the facts come out, if possible, for you never know what unexpected elements behind a situation may be, but what you do know is that two children and a wife have lost their hero, and that is more important than politics, including my own.
Obama completely bombed tonight. He was in way over his head and taken to school by Mitt Romney.
You who brag from the right on Romney’s debate performance, you didn’t notice he abandoned your flank?
Romney raised the dark art of flip flopping to demonic new levels.
At least she offered condolences BEFORE her signature atrocious, propaganda filled, rant.
She has never offered any such salutation to the public school system she murdered.
Umm… Oopsie-Daisy… looks like one of Ivie’s fellow agents shot and killed him and then was shot by a third. What say you now Janny-jumps-to-conclusion and the rest of you right wing morons.
My condolences to Mr. Ivie’s family —
— especially as he was killed by “Friendly Fire” by other DHS agents (according to the FBI).
What we need is not “more idiots with guns”, but rather a real solution to the border.
We also need a solution to the Wicked Witch of the Southwest using this tragic event as an opportunity to push her broken-head agenda. May the State of Maricopa County kindly remove itself from the rest of us who don’t have squirrel-food in our braincage.
E
“Four fallen agents in less than two years,” Jan Brewer. There have been four hundred & thirty-six deaths of migrants in the same time period on OUR border. ALL life is sacred, regardless of nationality. We share in their grief for their loved ones and family.
Ms. Brewer seems to suggest that 4 BP agents died over the past 4 years due to gunshot wounds.
Not true, because 2 of those 4 BP agents died when they crashed, during a foolish, high-speed, and very dangerous pursuit of a vehicle containing what they suspected were “illegals.”