WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President George W. Bush named Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff as the U.S. point person to work with Mexican officials to clamp down on increasing violence along the U.S.-Mexican border, the White House said on Monday.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan made the announcement after Bush talked by telephone with his Mexican counterpart, Vicente Fox, to discuss immigration and border violence, which has surged in recent months.

“Primarily they talked about the increased border violence and the two leaders talked about the importance of working together to improve our border security and stop the violence,” McClellan told reporters.

The leaders decided to pick a high-level contact within each government to work together on the issue and Bush tapped Chertoff for the role, McClellan said.

Attacks on American border guards jumped more than 100 percent last year to 778 as U.S. agents confronted often heavily armed Mexican smugglers running drugs and illegal immigrants into the country.

Bush’s talk with Fox comes after the U.S. envoy to Mexico last month accused the country’s government of failing to control crime. Border violence has increased since Fox declared war on drug cartels a year ago.

More hot air blowing. Every now and again President Bush comes out with some lines about illegal immigration and it’s always the same OLD same old. No real reform, change. No looking out for American citizens’ best interests; rather, being stuck in the mindset of the business world.

Lou Dobbs takes a stand and he should be respected for it. There are more and more who have the balls to speak about this and break away from this old school mentality of the GOP.

CNN’s Lou Dobbs is garnering praise for his relentless on-air attacks on illegal immigration – and his refusal to back down to critics.

“People across the country tune in to Lou Dobbs because they know their views on immigration will be presented,” Rosemary Jenks, director of governmental relations at NumbersUSA – a policy group that favors reducing immigration – told the New York Times.

“He is a hero to a lot of people.”

I wouldn’t call him a hero, YET, but he does push this issue week after week. It’s having an impact.

On his CNN show “Lou Dobbs Tonight,” the lifelong Republican assails the Bush administration for doing too little to stem illegal immigration.

He rails against businesses for outsourcing American jobs to other countries, and advocacy groups for helping illegal aliens in the United States, and lauds officials who try to enforce immigration laws.

Critics of Dobbs – who occasionally appear on his show – complain that he neglects to say that the overwhelming majority of illegal immigrants take jobs that Americans don’t want.

We’re all so sick of hearing this excuse- JOBS no one wants. Bull shit. There will always be someone who will do anything for work. There are millions of people still on welfare rolls who should be put to work… this is just an excuse.

Others attack him as anti-immigrant or even racist.

But Dobbs brushes aside attacks and continues on with his anti-illegal immigration crusade.

When the Catholic Church opposed legislation that would make it a federal crime to assist illegals, Dobbs told his audience: “Tonight, the effort to secure this nation’s borders has a new opponent. It is the Catholic Church.”

LOL. Ahh yes the good Church. Worried about the risks the illegals take when they cross the borders and take the illegal ways into this country. Humanitarian concerns for sure and certainly not a viable concern to the big picture here.

After critics of the Minutemen called them “vigilantes” for patrolling the Mexican border in search of illegal aliens, Dobbs declared: “I support the Minuteman Project and the fine Americans who make it up in all they’ve accomplished, fully, relentlessly and proudly.”

Dobbs says he has a “mission” to tell viewers the truth, regardless of controversy, according to the Times.

Everyone should support the Minutemen. They are not harming anyone in spite of what the MSM wants us all to believe. Citizens have a right to take action, to form coalitions and to speak out against government. Since the Federal government is doing such a lousy job with illegal entry, we the people are just trying to help them out.

“We are a nation of immigrants, but we are also a nation of laws,” he said.

Exactly.