Pubdate: Tue, 11 Aug 2009
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2009 Los Angeles Times
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/bc7El3Yo
Website: http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Anna Gorman, Reporting from El Paso
Note: This interview was condensed from a longer conversation.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Janet+Napolitano
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/homeland+security

Q & A

JANET NAPOLITANO ON THE BORDER, IMMIGRATION AND MORE

The Homeland Security Secretary Talks About Immigration Reform, 
Overhauling Bush Administration Policies and Changes in Detention Policy.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is attending a 
conference in Texas on border security. She sat down with a Times 
reporter Monday to discuss a number of issues, including the Mexican 
drug war, immigration detention in the U.S. and legislative reforms.

[Q] How effective have the new technology and extra personnel at the 
border been, and what more can be done to target the drug cartels and 
border violence?

[A] They have been very effective because they have been coordinated, 
they have been targeted, they have been done in collaboration with 
the Mexicans, which is a change from years past. . . . How has it 
worked so far? It's done well. What do we need to be doing more of or 
do differently? We want to continue our joint efforts to add to 
Mexican civilian law enforcement. At some point, for example, the 
military needs to leave Ciudad Juarez and we need to have a civilian 
law enforcement capacity there. . . . You have got to be able to 
match manpower with technology, with really good, smart, targeted, 
intelligence-driven law enforcement to really have a system that makes sense.

[Q] What impact do you think the recently announced immigration 
detention overhaul will have on some of the identified problems, 
including inadequate healthcare?

[A] I think it will have a major effect. On detention, what we have 
found is just really a lack of standard uniformity applied throughout 
the system. There are a variety of reasons for that . . . but 
whenever you detain somebody under the rule of law, you have an 
obligation to do so meeting certain standards, safety and healthcare 
and the like. . . . And so everything we are doing is designed to 
make sure we are meeting those standards.

[Q] You are trying to distinguish yourself from the Bush 
administration by making a lot of policy changes. Nevertheless, there 
are complaints that you are continuing the policies of the previous 
administration. What is your response?

[A] Some of this is not Bush policy. It's the law. The underlying 
complaint is that we are simply enforcing the law. Because people are 
unhappy with the underlying law doesn't mean that we are not going to 
enforce it. . . . There is a big effort among many that we need 
comprehensive immigration reform. I, for one, have said it myself and 
have been an advocate for it. . . .

What we are doing is smart and I think very effective enforcement. . 
. . If all you do is a set of raids and you pick up employees and you 
have a press conference -- but the employer is left or the corporate 
entity is left to simply sit still for a little bit and go back into 
the illegal labor market and continue making money and exploiting 
that market -- then you really haven't done very much in terms of a 
deterrent aspect. The guidance has been shifted to really . . . work 
with [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] to build prosecutable 
cases against employers who deserve prosecution and also to increase 
the use of I-9 audits so that folks know out there that we are paying 
attention. . . . That is classic law enforcement. Classic law 
enforcement is that you punish but you also deter and that was not 
happening. . . . With the changes we have made, we will have a much 
bigger impact on the illegal labor demand side.

[Q] What is next in terms of enforcement?

What's next is probably building on what's been done. In other words, 
I really want to see this worksite enforcement move. So really 
emphasizing that, working with the U.S. attorneys in terms of 
actually bringing cases. I really want to make sure that the 
beginnings of the things that we have started on, detention 
improvement, that we carry through with those. . . . Let's announce 
it, sustain it and really build it into the system.

[Q] On immigration reform, what are the challenges you are seeing, 
and how do you bring people together -- labor and business, Democrats 
and Republicans -- on the key issues, such as the estimated 12 
million illegal immigrants in this country?

[A] It's clear that everybody wants it. . . . If I go into a room in 
a roundtable and I ask, "How many of you are in favor of illegal 
immigration? Raise your hand," I will have unanimity. Not a hand will 
go up. Then I say, "How many of you are of the view that we need to 
make changes to the existing law?" Every hand goes up. . . . You have 
got that consensus out there. So the challenge really is to say, OK, 
what are some value-added things we can add to enforcement and at the 
same time really begin looking afresh at future labor flows and also 
the issue of those in the country already? . . . Some of these things 
have already had a majority of the Congress vote for, just never in 
one bill. . . .

The American people have to have confidence that whatever is done 
will be carried out, that we won't adopt a bill and then not enforce 
it over the next 20 years. But as we build that confidence, and we 
will, part of what we are doing is saying that we need to have smart 
enforcement of our laws: What makes sense from a labor and economic 
standpoint? How do you do this and protect the American worker? How 
do you do this and make sure we have access to the labor capital a 
growing economy demands? 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake