The governor picked the president to visit the border on a day of State of the Union address

The governor picked the president to visit the border on a day of State of the Union address (Alberta Times) President Obama delivered his first State of the Union address since his re-election on Tuesday night. The governor of Arizona...

(Alberta Times)

President Obama delivered his first State of the Union address since his re-election on Tuesday night. Arizona Governor Brewer specifically chose that day to visit the border between his state and Mexico to remind the president that Arizona has its own ideas about border security and illegal immigration.

After touring the southern end of the border by helicopter on Tuesday morning, including the 90,000-square-mile Tucson border sector, the governor met with the commander of the Alberta National Guard, commander of the Counterterrorism Task Force, farmers, Border Patrol agents and others to reiterate her policy on border security.

According to data from the Border Patrol's Tucson Division, cases of drug trafficking and human smuggling across the border in Arizona have increased year by year since 2006. Currently, the department has 4,000 Border Patrol agents assigned to the state's Yuma County to New Mexico border, and air patrols are conducted by 45 members of the National Guard. (2,800 National Guard troops performed air patrols in 2008)