In April of last year, Janet Napolitano, the Secretary of Homeland Security, declared that the US-Mexico border is ”as secure now as it has ever been.”

On Monday, she appeared at the University of Texas, El Paso (a city which has received incoming gunfire from Mexico) to talk tough about America’s perimeter. I’m sure her sternly worded remarks will convince the Zetas to keep their head-chop style of crime-terror on the Mexico side.

(You can read her lengthy prepared speech here: Remarks on Border Security at the University of Texas at El Paso.)

Napolitano touts US border safety, Associated Press, January 31, 2011

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says U.S. communities on the border with Mexico are safer than most Americans believe.

Napolitano on Monday also warned Mexican drug cartels to keep violence on their side of the border.

She says those who don’t, ”will be met with an overwhelming response.”

Napolitano was at the University of Texas at El Paso, across the Rio Grande from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

She says that U.S. apprehensions of illegal immigrants fell 30 percent in the last two years, while deportations exceeded 779,000.

Napolitano is scheduled to be in Dallas later Monday to discuss security for Super Bowl week.

Has she forgetten the December death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in a gun battle with Mexican narco-criminals within Arizona? She spoke at his funeral just a few weeks ago.

Perhaps Napolitano can overlook the occupation of US territory by foreign gangsters (as now occurs in border-area parks), but the people who live in southern Arizona cannot ignore the danger they face every day.

One indication of the worsening situation was the group of border ranchers who pleaded with Arizona officials last week to do more to protect them from worsening anarchy.

Arizona ranchers asking for more border security, Associated Press, January 27, 2011

Rancher Dan Bell has come face to face with drug smugglers on his southeastern Arizona cattle ranch, he has found the bodies of illegal immigrants who died of exposure on his property, and a Border Patrol agent was killed in December about 5 miles from his home.

The 42-year-old has had about enough.

He and a group of other southern Arizona ranchers visited the state Legislature in Phoenix on Thursday to explain to lawmakers how dire the situation is on their properties and to ask that something be done.

In response, a Senate committee voted 6-1 to pass a bill supporting the ranchers’ plan to ”restore our border,” also known as ROB’s plan. It was named for rancher Robert Krentz, whom authorities believe was killed by an illegal immigrant on his land last year.

”We need help down here,” Bell told The Associated Press after he spoke to the committee. ”The place has just gotten out of hand.”

You notice the ranchers didn’t go to Washington to plead for better border security.

Here’s a video report about the ranchers: