President Obama Speechifies Some More, Claims "..border is more secure today than at any time in the past 20 years"

He happens to be right. The US/Mexican border happens to be very secure if you're going to be trafficking humans or narcotics from Mexico.

I missed the speech, but I suppose its for the best. A transcript is available here, though and apparently it was even less substantive than his Oval Office address to the nation which is a hard act to follow in terms of vapid platitudes.

Earlier this month, Arizona senator Jon Kyl claimed at a town hall meeting with constituents that the President told him:

“The problem is, . . . if we secure the border, then you all won’t have any reason to support ‘comprehensive immigration reform.’”

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs denied that such an exchange ever took place, but then the President basically stated that it was going to be Administration policy in tonight's speech.

ELSEWHERE ALONG THE BORDER: Six gunshots- apparently from the Mexican side of the border- struck City Hall in El Paso, TX on Tuesday. Investigators say the incident happened at 5 PM when a bullet came through the 9th floor window, struck an interior wall and stopped in a picture frame. El Paso is directly across the Rio Grande from Ciudad Juarez, Sonora and El Paso's City Hall is about 2000 feet from the border as the crow flies, with a BNSF Railroad yard, the El Paso Greyhound Terminal and US Route 85 between City Hall and the Rio Grande at it's closest point. This comes nearly four weeks after a US Border Patrol agent fatally shot a rock-throwing 14 year old Mexican national as Border Patrol agents along the Rio Grande tried arresting a group of people who entered the US illegally. It was later revealed that the youth was known to authorities on the American side as a juvenile smuggler of aliens with at least one arrest in 2009.

A shootout on the Mexican side of the border has killed at least 21 people, according to the Sonoran State prosecutors office. The shootings took place about 12 miles south of the Arizona border and police took nine people into custody, including six with gunshot wounds while seizing eight vehicles and seven weapons. The dead and wounded are believed to be rival gang members.

A deputy prosecutor for the state of Chihuahua was killed in an attack on Wednesday. Mexican authorities report that the vehicle carrying Deputy Prosecutor Sandra Salas Garcia was pursued by another vehicle before being riddled with bullets in Ciudad Juarez. Salas' job title was to review the work of prosecutors and special investigative task forces throughout the state.