Governator: Feds are Failing to Secure Our Borders

California Governor Arnold Swarzenegger appeared yesterday on Fox News Sunday and had this to say about California’s dilemma with illegal immigration. The Washington Times has the story here:

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger yesterday said groups such as the Minuteman Project are rising up to guard the border against illegal aliens because the federal government is failing to secure the nation.
The project brought together more than 800 volunteers to guard a 23-mile stretch of the Arizona border last month as a protest against lax immigration policies. A similar protest is planned for San Diego in October.
“We are not saying that yes, that we endorse that the Minutemen should do the job,” Mr. Schwarzenegger said. “We are saying that the federal government should do the job, but if the federal government falls short of doing their job and they have [not] fulfilled their responsibility and the promise to the people, then the average citizen will rise up and will do their job, and that’s what they do.”

The Republican governor retracted a recent statement that the borders should be “closed,” saying he meant the borders should be “secured” against illegal aliens and terrorists.
More manpower is needed on the borders, and the federal government has the funds, but politicians lack the willpower to beef up security, Mr. Schwarzenegger said on “Fox News Sunday.”
“That’s what you do when you have a huge country, you have thousands of miles and thousands of cities in America, and they all have to be patrolled and they all have police, they all have the highway patrol, they all have the sheriffs and all of this. We have the money to do it. It is not a lack of money. When we can afford the war in Iraq, we can afford to control our own borders,” Mr. Schwarzenegger said.
“I think that there is an outcry by the people of America about the immigration situation, and I think that the federal government has to solve it,” Mr. Schwarzenegger said.

Indeed.