Leading The News

Napolitano confronted with immigration reform

By Jared Allen

Posted: 02/25/09 01:04 PM [ET]

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano will have her first
private meeting with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus
(CHC) on Thursday, a number of sources have confirmed.

The meeting will be in the Capitol, and will be Napolitano's second
straight day on Capitol Hill. On Wednesday, the secretary testified
before the House Homeland Security Committee for the first time as the
head of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Immigration reform is the top priority for the CHC, and members of the
Hispanic Caucus have a number of questions about the former Arizona
governor's commitment to enacting quick changes to strict immigration
enforcement policies put in place under the Bush administration, which
the CHC has told President Obama they want reformed.

Senior leaders in the CHC were said to be particularly curious about a
number of review and assessment directives that Napolitano has called
for already.

In testimony that she submitted to the Homeland Security Committee in
advance of her Wednesday appearance, Napolitano said she has already
requested "directives to assess the status of the Department's
worksite enforcement programs, fugitive alien operations, immigration
detention facilities, removal programs and the 287(g) program."

Since the Bush administration undertook a much tougher immigration
enforcement strategy — culminating in a number of high-profile
workplace raids that netted hundreds of undocumented workers, many of
whom were deported almost immediately — the CHC has pushed back with a
multifaceted attempt to curtail the raids, and is currently on a
nationwide tour designed to highlight the impact such raids are having
on Latino families and communities.

Sources said members of the CHC are looking for specific answers from
Napolitano about whether she plans to roll back such Bush initiatives
or is leaning toward keeping them in place.

Hispanic members of Congress also want to talk to Napolitano about
Obama's choice of her deputy secretary to lead the Immigration and
Customs Enforcement arm of DHS, John Morton.

Morton, according to a DHS press release, has "lengthy experience in
immigration enforcement and criminal prosecution … [Morton has been]
responsible for the prosecution of criminal cases and the development
of DOJ [Department of Justice] policy in the areas of immigration crime."

The CHC has taken issue with what it perceives as the
over-criminalizatio n of illegal immigration. Along these lines, they
plan to question Napolitano about a February report from the Migration
Policy Institute, which found that the DHS's "federal fugitive
operations program, established to locate, apprehend and remove
fugitive aliens who pose a threat to the community, has instead
focused chiefly on arresting unauthorized immigrants without criminal
convictions. "

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