Today the U.S. Senate’s Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs will host a confirmation hearing with President-elect Obama’s nominee for Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Governor Janet Napolitano (D-AZ).
As a border-state Governor, Janet Napolitano knows that ending illegal immigration will only be possible by enacting common-sense, comprehensive immigration reform. She gets that the best way to replace the chaos of illegal immigration with an orderly, legal system is to combine:
1) effective border enforcement
2) a smart and tough crackdown on bad actor employers
3) earned legalization and citizenship for those here without papers; and
4) a modernized family and employment-based legal immigration system
Many immigrant advocates have critiqued Napolitano for not going far enough to create such a system in Arizona. What is clear is that even while governing one of the fiercest immigration battlegrounds in the country (Arizona), Napolitano consistently pressured Washington to pass just such a comprehensive immigration reform bill.
If confirmed as Secretary of Homeland Security, we are confident that Janet Napolitano would help lead the effort to make good on President-elect Obama’s commitment to move on immigration reform in 2009. Not to mention help overhaul the misplaced priorities of DHS.
