A topic of today’s POLITICO Arena was… National Guard troops will be deployed to the border. What’s your reaction? Here’s my response:

This move by President Obama seems to be a direct response to Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer’s call for the Obama team to “do its job” on our border. Apparently, she got their attention.

During his time in office, President George W. Bush doubled the number of border patrol agents (from 9,000 to 18,000) and increased funding for border security and enforcement by more than 160 percent. Under President Bush’s leadership, the number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement teams devoted to removing fugitive aliens from the U.S. grew from 15 to 75 in order to address the problem inside the United States. In addition, E-Verify, a system for verifying worker eligibility, was greatly expanded and states like Arizona began requiring local businesses to use it to further weaken the attraction for illegal immigration.

Even with all of those efforts to better secure the border, the violence between warring drug cartels in Mexico has caused understandable concern among Americans living in the border region. President Obama’s belated acknowledgement of the legitimate fear of violence spilling into our country is at least a step in the right direction.