Napolitano Touts US-Mexico Border Security

By Anna Cameron 

Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano denounced claims that the U.S.-Mexico border is “overrun or out of control,” as she touted Friday significant improvements in all areas of border enforcement. 

“Given the deployment of resources, given the statistical framework, it is simply inaccurate to state, as too many have, that the border with Mexico is…out of control,” urged Napolitano. “This statement…is wrong. It’s just plain wrong.” 

According to Napolitano, these misconceptions are hurting border communities, as targeted cities cannot recruit businesses, employees and students.

“It needs to be a realization in the United States and in Mexico that American border communities are safe,” Napolitano said.

Since the launch of the Southwest Border Initiative in March of 2009, several resources have been deployed along the border in order to facilitate travel and trade, and to increase security. Additionally, the size of the border control and the number of task force personnel has been increased to more than double that of previous years. The number of ICE intel analysts has also been raised. 

Despite these marked advancements in border security, Napolitano emphasized the importance of an increased focus on immigration reform.  

“The border is important for our country, but so is immigration reform,” said Napolitano. “The president has…laid out an outline for what an immigration bill should look like…that recognizes that our nation is a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants, and these things do not have to be mutually exclusive.”

Congress Questions Napolitano On Role Of DHS

By Julianne LaJeunesse, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service

If you could count all of the concerns that were thrown at U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday, it might make you more than a math whiz, it might make you curious. Curious as to why and how the department is going to handle international border issues, cyber terrorism and how the U.S. legal system will adequately handle Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s New York City trial.

The committee hearing was intended to provide oversight over DHS, and several times the role of the department was questioned. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) asked Napolitano about the department’s role in protecting cyber security, suggesting the entity may not be the best group for the job.

“When you take out the technical aspects, and the legal aspects, it’s hard to see how Homeland Security ends up with a very strong platform for persistent leadership, unless there’s some vehicle for coordinating the DNI [Director of National Intelligence], and you, and the Attorney General, and everybody together, and I’m not comfortable that that presently exists,” Whitehouse said. “I think the NSC [National Security Council] is a good interim measure, but it would seem that that should evolve into a more formal cyber-specific government structure at some point.”

Though Whitehouse suggested that cyber security could be handled by another government arm, too much government role was a theme that Senators Arlen Specter (D-Penn.) and Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said may be unnecessary. The two said transportation measures, such as some airport securities and aggressive border patrol practices, could be safely downgraded if proof of their need doesn’t exist.

“I wonder, do you have results as to what all of these elaborate tests at airports show?” Specter asked. “Is all of it really necessary? Because if it is, fine.”

Generally, however, the committee was not ready to dismiss the precautions taken by the department, and indeed did call for more action from Napolitano and her staff in regard to answering questions about how best to deal with issues of illegal immigrant labor and its good and bad effects on U.S. farming. Napolitano didn’t have a direct comment on the utility of illegal immigrant employment, but did say that the DHS is starting to better track immigrants who have overstayed the Visa allowance.

Similarly, the Secretary left Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to prosecute Khalid Sheik Mohmmamed, one of five suspected September 11th terrorists, to the U.S. Department of Justice, saying, “that is a prosecution decision, as to where, and in what venue to bring a case.” “I believe that is properly held by the AG.”