Gov. Says Borders Are Vulnerable

Schwarzenegger takes Congress and the White House to task for failing to enact an immigration strategy and says they are to blame for the protests.

By Peter Nicholas
Times Staff Writer
May 6, 2006

ROSEVILLE, Calif. — In some of the harshest terms he has used to date, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday said the federal government has left the nation's borders dangerously vulnerable while failing to come up with a sensible approach to immigration.

Schwarzenegger, taking questions at a news conference on a multibillion-dollar public works package passed by the Legislature early Friday, blamed the Bush administration and Congress for the massive street protests and widespread public unhappiness over federal immigration policy.

Marches in Los Angeles, Chicago and other cities, he said, "are an expression of frustration. People want to send a message to Washington that they're not happy with certain bills….

"I think that all of this comes down to one thing: The federal government has failed the people of America in a terrible way, in a disastrous way, when it comes to this immigration situation."

Schwarzenegger, who emigrated from Europe in 1968, called for better ways to police U.S. borders.