Bachmann is Increasingly Making Immigration a Centerpiece of Her Campaign

Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann increasingly is making immigration a central issue of her campaign to be the GOP nominee in the presidential election. She vows that if elected president, she will have a super-fence along the U.S.-Mexican border. (AP)

 Two days after she focused on immigration in her campaign stop in Iowa, Minnesota U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann is scheduled to be in Arizona Monday to discuss the U.S.-Mexico border.

Bachmann, who is seeking her party's nomination to run for president in 2012, will be meeting privately with Republican legislators and other supporters of a state-sanctioned campaign to raise donations to pay for additional fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The stop in the state that became the symbol of mounting frustration with federal inaction on illegal immigration continues Bachmann's growing focus on immigration as a key part of her campaign.

On Saturday, she signed a pledge in Iowa to push for construction of a fence along the entire length of the border with Mexico, raising the issue of illegal immigration in an Iowa town where about one third of the residents are Hispanic.

Bachmann also renewed her attacks on the immigration policies of Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, one of the rivals for the Republican nomination, and she criticized President Barack Obama for what she called his failure to control the border.

"President Obama has failed the American people by failing to secure the southern border," said Bachmann. "I will secure that border and that will be job one."

Last year, Arizona legislators approved a law that criminalizes being in the country illegally and allows police to check the immigration status of people they encounter -- during their work -- whom they suspect may be undocumented. A federal judge put the most controversial elements of the law on hold after the Justice Department filed a lawsuit seeking to invalidate it.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in -- the court has agreed to hear the case.

In Arizona, supporters of the fence project say border security needs to be tightened to thwart smugglers of drugs and people as well as to help keep terrorists out.

Critics say border security is a federal responsibility and that the state should focus on other problems.

In the summer, Bachmann traveled to Phoenix in an attempt to get the endorsement of the self-proclaimed toughest sheriff in America, Joe Arpaio, whose hard-line and controversial stand on illegal immigration has made him a sought after man in the GOP race.

During that visit, Bachmann, who was in Arizona for campaign fundraisers, focused almost entirely on immigration during the three minutes she talked to reporters. She then went into a private meeting with Arpaio.

"As president of the United States, I want to solve the border issue," Bachmann said, noting that the nation's immigration problems extend beyond the southern border states. "I want to build the fence that needs to be built and I want to solve this problem."

"I know that as president of the United States, I would not be suing the state of Arizona," Bachmann said. "I would be fulfilling the commitment that the federal government needs to fulfill, and that is to secure our borders."

This story contains material from The Associated Press.

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