Thread: Napolitano shuns ideologies, welcomes practicality

Napolitano shuns ideologies, welcomes practicality

By Thomas Frank, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Janet Napolitano is at home in the center.
Napolitano is President-elect Barack Obama's nominee to become the third Homeland Security secretary, and the first Democrat, since the department was created in 2002. She faces a confirmation hearing Thursday.

Arizona's governor since 2003, Napolitano vetoed hot-button bills to require police enforcement of immigration laws and to bar illegal migrants from receiving state tuition aid and other education benefits.

But Napolitano enacted a law penalizing businesses that knowingly hire undocumented workers, and sent National Guard troops to the Arizona-Mexico border.

"She's disturbed people who are left-of-center and people who are right-of-center," said Northern Arizona University professor Raymond Michalowski.

Homeland Security's 22 agencies screen airline passengers and cargo, patrol coasts, waterways and borders, respond to disasters and enforce immigration laws.

In Arizona, Napolitano faced simultaneous pressure to crack down on illegal immigrants and to give them rights and benefits, said Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon. "Both of those extreme elements had no desire to solve the issue," Gordon said.

Napolitano steered a middle course. She worked to keep people from illegally crossing the 373-mile Arizona-Mexico border but not to harshly punish those who were already in the state illegally, Michalowski said. "She has been reluctant to support hypercriminalization of people who are here," he said.

Napolitano "didn't want to be viewed as a hard-line left-winger," said Darcy Olsen, CEO of the Goldwater Institute, a conservative Phoenix think tank.

Addressing ideological issues, Napolitano shuns ideological talk and expresses positions in terms of practicality. The bill last year to require police enforcement of immigration laws was widely opposed by immigrant advocates as punitive. Napolitano called it "simply an unnecessary, unfunded mandate to law enforcement."

Napolitano, 51, was appointed by President Clinton as Arizona's U.S. attorney in 1993 and won election as state attorney general in 1998. She was narrowly elected governor in 2002 and won re-election easily in 2006.

Napolitano's national profile grew as chairwoman of the National Governors Association in 2006 and 2007.

In a 2007 speech in Washington, D.C., Napolitano outlined a "real border plan." It includes enabling Mexicans to get U.S. visas more quickly, penalizing companies that hire undocumented workers and addressing the "root causes of illegal immigration" by helping improve living standards in Mexico and Latin America.

Napolitano has criticized a steel barrier being built across much of the U.S.-Mexican border, saying in her speech that she does not think "a wall by itself is the answer." In calling the barrier a "wall," Napolitano adopted the terminology of immigrant advocates who oppose the structure. The Bush administration calls the barrier a "fence."

"She's a very smart politician," said former state senator Slade Mead, a Napolitano ally who switched from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party. Intense work habits, a quick grasp of bureaucratic details and high visibility make Napolitano popular with voters, if not always her staff, Mead said.

"She's an absolute workaholic, and she burns people out. She's very demanding," Mead said.

Napolitano also has taken a centrist course with businesses. Groups such as local chambers of commerce sued unsuccessfully in 2007 to block a law that would revoke licenses of businesses intentionally hiring undocumented workers.

Maria Luisa O'Connell, president of the Border Trade Alliance, which promotes trade with Mexico and Canada, said Napolitano supports improving cross-border commerce and allocated $2 million to expand a border crossing in Nogales, Ariz.

"She's very strong on enforcement, but she will not do enforcement to the complete detriment of the economy," O'Connell said. "She understands the importance of balance.
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Here comes open borders and once the Mexican government collapses the North American Union..............

There isn't going to be any "middle road" or "neutral" position on this issue!

The great 21st Century South to North exodus is here now, facilitated by crazies!

"She's very strong on enforcement, but she will not do enforcement to the complete detriment of the economy," O'Connell said. "She understands the importance of balance.

You don't enforce the law when its convenient. This woman has no buisness being head of homeland security.