KING: We begin by welcoming Governor Jan Brewer, Republican of Arizona. Just hours ago she filed an appeal with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals after a federal judge yesterday blocked a key part of her state's anti-immigration law.

Thank you for joining us, Governor. Is there any part of the judge's ruling that at all had any affect on you where you could have said well, maybe she's got a point?

GOV. JAN BREWER (R), ARIZONA: Well, of course, we listened very carefully to her statements. And after reading her brief, we realized that she made some points, of course.

When we signed the bill we felt it was in good order and that it was constitutional. And we have now consulted with our lawyers and with the members of the legislature to see if -- if there were some things that we might want to kind of tweak a little bit. But we haven't necessarily made up our minds yet.

KING: So your -- what did you file today if you haven't made up your mind yet? Are there certain parts you might change?

BREWER: Well -- well, not necessarily. What we did today, Larry, is simply that we -- we made an appeal to the 9th Circuit -- an expedited appeal to the 9th Circuit in order to get an appeal on the temporary -- on the injunction that she ruled on.

You know what everybody gets a little bit confused about is that she didn't rule against technically the legislation. She ruled to block the legislation until the legislation has time to go through the process.

So, you know, it's that judicial system, it takes -- the wheels of justice move a little slowly.

KING: You said that you'd consider suing the federal government if it doesn't enforce immigration laws. Would you elaborate on that?

BREWER: I -- well, I did. You know, it's the federal government's responsibility, of course, to secure our borders and to protect the people of Arizona. And they have laws that mandate that they do that. And they're not enforcing those laws.

And so we -- I have given it some consideration to sue the federal government. I haven't made up my mind on that yet either. You know, we're going to --

KING: How --

BREWER: We're taking this very, very cautiously and very, very carefully.

KING: How do you react -- there are some law enforcement officials -- we had a sheriff on last night -- didn't like the law, said it puts too much of a problem for their state troopers and others in law enforcement in the state of Arizona to enforce?

(LAUGHTER)

BREWER: Well, that's their job. It's their job. They took an oath to uphold the laws and enforce it and protect the people of Arizona. I don't know whom you had on last night, but that's a little silly, isn't it, when it's their job?

KING: Well, it was a sheriff from one of your counties and other police officers have spoken out that it can be difficult if you have to single out someone just by the way they look or act. That puts a lot of onus on a police officer, doesn't it? It doesn't?

BREWER: That's not what their -- that's not what they're doing. They're not looking at people and determining whether you're illegal or not. They are enforcing the laws and enforcing the federal laws that are on the statute.

You know, it's simply ridiculous to think that they're just going to look at someone and arrest them. They have to be in -- in a position of committing a crime and they have been enforcing federal legislation, federal laws in some of our counties all along.

So -- now with the bill and the -- that has been passed and the judge leaving in the portion about sanctuary cities, it will actually make it easier for law enforcement to enforce the statutes that the federal government has put forward, meaning that they have to enforce the federal laws and that their supervisors can't tell them to do anything less.

And so that was a big win for the people of Arizona.

You know, Larry, there has been so much misinformation put out in regards to Senate Bill 1070 and the rhetoric that has been spread across the country. You know, we just wish that we could get really the truth out there.

You know it's the federal government's responsibility to secure our borders. We passed Senate Bill 1070 as another tool in order to protect the citizens of Arizona. We have over 500,000 illegal immigrants living in Arizona. And we simply cannot sustain it.

It costs us a tremendous amount of money of course in health care, in education, and then, on top of it all, in incarceration. And the federal government doesn't reimburse us on any of these things. And they need to step up and do their job.

KING: How do you feel, Governor, about the people who employ illegal immigrants?

BREWER: Well, I think that they -- you know, we were the first state to make it a law that we had to have employer sanctions. And we implemented that. And that we're waiting to hear from the Supreme Court in return of that.

But we have all our employers use E-Verify which is not a perfect system but it's a step in the right direction.

You know the bottom line is, is that -- and that's the key word. Illegal. You know, we're a nation of laws. You know -- the bottom line is, is that, I always try to relate it to that, country without borders is like a house without walls. It collapses.

And I know that there are several people out there that want to discuss other issues. But we want our borders secured. And as the governor of the state of Arizona, I took an oath to uphold the laws and to protect the people of Arizona.

And I'm going to be relentless in it. I'm going to do what is right. So you know.

KING: What would you do about the -- what would you do about the 500,000 already in your state?

BREWER: Well, and that is a problem. We certainly need to talk about that. But I am not prepared to talk about it until there is -- a surge by the federal government to secure our borders.

Our borders have got to be secured. You know, when President Reagan, who was one of my idols, granted amnesty to about three million illegal immigrants it was based on the fact that the borders would be secured. That didn't happen. It didn't happen during the Bush administration.

And now here we go again. We have 11, 12 million illegals in the country. And they want to talk about -- their quote, their words -- comprehensive immigration reform. Well, I don't want to talk about that. I don't want to deal with it until our borders are secured.

And then we need to come together and determine what is the best way to address that issue.

KING: Thank you, Governor. Thanks for joining us.

BREWER: Thank you, Larry. Have a great day.

KING: You too.