Gov. Brewer Praises Border Surge Amendment

Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona, who is known for her own tough immigration policies, is praising the border surge amendment to the comprehensive immigration bill in the Senate, claiming it as a "victory" for her state, while appearing on Fox News on Monday.

"I really, really am claiming victory for Arizona in regards to the border surge," the Arizona Republican said. "I was writing to the federal government and to Sen. Schumer way back in June of 2010 in regards to the border surge that we needed to see completed before we move forward.

"So today, hopefully that will get out of the Senate and we can see that they are going to move forward, so I'm very pleased about that," she added.

The border surge amendment was introduced on Thursday by Sens. Bob Corker of Tennessee and John Hoeven of North Dakota. The two Republican senators propose increasing border security by adding 20,000 new border agents, which would place an agent every 1,000 feet on the 2,000 mile southern border.

Brewer says that she's been in regular contact with Arizona's two Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake as well as Rep. Matt Salmon about the immigration bill. Her primary concern is that the border is under operation control, she said.

"We need to rely on our border control, when they say that it's under operational control, our law enforcement, the border governors, people that are living it every day, day in and day out, they're the ones that should be able to call and say, this time the border is under operational control, because we are the recipients of all the bad that takes place with the border being open," Brewer added.

When asked if there should be concern about increasing the size of government to solve the immigration problem with another big bill, Brewer says, "This is a big issue so it probably needs a big bill, but . . . in the past we haven't had a lot of good reasons to believe that they read those great big bills, so someone better be going through it with a fine-tooth comb and do it right this time."

Brewer's comments echo similar comments she made while appearing on Fox News on Sunday.

"I think that what we're seeing taking place in the Senate is a victory for Arizona," she said. "I'm glad that they finally decided to talk about the 'border surge' that we've called out for since 2010."