The new head of the Department of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, paid a visit to the Arizona border earlier today. Sens. McCain and Kyl and AZ Gov. Napolitano were there as well, and it appears to have been a just a standard first-hand look without much news interest. The AP quotes him as saying "the issue of securing the border is a homeland security issue, it's an immigration issue and it's also a humanitarian issue." And, from this:

Chertoff says, "Obviously, we do need more folks. We do need more technology, and then, we need to organize that in a way that gets us the most bang for our buck."

Chertoff offered no specifics. He did talk about the importance of technology including cameras, sensors and unmanned aerial vehicles.

He says, "Working with these tools really is a force multiplier for the Border Patrol agents."

Chertoff admits terrorists could be crossing the border.

He says, "Obviously, people who are probing to get into the homeland to wage war against us here in the United States are going to explore every possible avenue."

For some reason he bypassed the heavily trafficked (and heavily impacted) Tohono O'odham Reservation, which stretches from near Tucson to the border.

In Texas, a group of borderland sheriffs have formed the Texas Border Sheriffs' Coalition to help combat potential criminals and terrorists coming from Mexico:

The host of the meeting, Webb County Sheriff Rick Flores, in Laredo, tells VOA that the surge in drug-related violence in Mexico does not stop at the Rio Grande river, which separates the two countries there.

"It is getting to the point that the violence that is happening in these border Mexican cities is now spilling over into the US towns and cities along the border and we are concerned about that," he said...

Sheriff Flores says he is also worried about information he has indicating that terrorists may be paying Mexican drug and immigrant smugglers for help in crossing the border.

"This is intelligence that we are gathering and also through Homeland Security and other federal authorities that there are terrorist cells, Middle Easterners, making their way through Mexico so they can come in through the back door of the United States," he added...

"There are people who own property along the Rio Grande here in Texas who are targets of the drug cartels," he explained. "They are saying to them, 'Don't come to your place.' They are asking some of them who live in these areas to move out so they can do their activities. They are coming [after] their families, they are coming after them. We are talking about a very serious issue here that a lot of people do not really understand..."

(If you now need a laugh, see this almost incoherent guilty liberal report from CBS 5 in the San Francisco Bay Area.)