Audio By Carbonatix
Ben Quayle, a candidate for the District 3 Congressional seat soon-to-be vacated by Congressman John Shadegg, has jumped head-first into the immigration debate, calling out Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano for alleged disillusionment when it comes to the security of the U.S./Mexico border.
“Secretary Janet Napolitano recently proclaimed Arizona’s border ‘is as secure now as it’s ever been,'” Quayle says. “Secretary Napolitano lives in an alternate reality than we do in Arizona because we know that the situation on our southern border has gotten exponentially more violent since 2005, which was the same year then-Arizona Governor Napolitano declared a ‘State of Emergency’ along our southern border.”
Quayle’s comments are in response to the federal government’s pledge to beef up border security with an additional 1,200 National Guard troops.
Of those 1,200 troops — to be deployed on August 1 — 524 are coming to Arizona. The rest will be scattered across California, Texas, and New Mexico.
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Quayle — like most GOPers running for office these days — says that’s not enough.
“Recently, the drug cartels detonated a car bomb near our border in Juarez,” Quayle says. “This level of sophistication in the drug cartels’ terrorist activities is just the latest alarm bell that shows this is a national security issue.
“And as a human rights issue, it should concern all of us that human smugglers are abandoning illegal immigrants they smuggle into our country, causing the death tolls to rise so high that the Pima County Coroner’s office now has to use refrigeration trucks to store the bodies,” he continues.
Quayle is engaged in one of the most crowded Congressional primaries in the country so the tough-talk on immigration is a must if he wants to compete in a highly conservative district.
If you trust the pollsters, it seems to be working — Quayle leads the pack of 10 candidates with 18 percent of the vote.
