Janet Napolitano, the former Arizona Governor was tapped by the Obama Administration to manage the Department of Homeland Security. She, like many other Department heads, is looking for an influx of money from the stimulus package.
We will hear the President speak on a wide range of issues tonight in his Address to the Congress. Illegal Immigration is expected to be a topic.
While serving as governor of the border state for nearly two terms, she enacted laws that focused on halting illegal immigration inside Arizona by enacting very strict penalties for businesses that hire illegal aliens. Her goal now, is to nationalize this program.
In an interview with NPR last week, Janet said: "We are going to…focus on the employers and make sure that they are subject to criminal penalties for violating the law,”
She also stipulated that her organization would focus on human traffickers, the men who profit from guiding illegal aliens across the border, and in many cases people who take advantage of a desperate situation.
Napolitano referred to an array of sensors, radars and cameras balanced on poles at the border. You'll remember an older post about the company that got the contract was also a major player in the last administration. Well, to repeat myself, they had a faulty product, the government knew it but we purchased it anyway.
Janet is finding that so far, this technology, known as SBInet, has been more of a funding headache than a well performing virtual network and at the sum of $393 million for 2007 & 2008, a waste of money.
How about that fence? The Government Accountability Office (GAO), refers to the fence as “tactical infrastructure,”costing about $2 million per mile. Napolitano thinks the money would have been better spent finishing the fence.
However the best tool to fight illegal immigration is to deal with the supply side of the issue. She said: "Reducing the demand for illegal immigrants in the US will lower incentive for them to risk their lives to cross in increasingly inhospitable areas, like the Sonoran desert in Arizona".
ICE arrested some 250,000 illegal immigrants and deported some 130,000.. Even with nearly 700 miles of fence in place, immigrants continue to enter the US every day, risking their lives to do so. People from all over the world make the journey to Mexico to take advantage of the largely unprotected southern border.
Janet said: "Deportation may be a necessary component of a comprehensive illegal immigration plan, but as the numbers show, it is a zero-sum end game. So long as employers are willing to offer jobs without a background check and ID, the drive to enter the US will continue to tempt the continued crossing"
Obama's speech tonight is likely to touch on the issue of border security and what to do with the estimated 12 - 20 million people who havent bothered to check in. When the economy in the US is forcing citizens to get on line at the food pantries [many for the first time] the issue of jobs and healthcare bring the painful issue of illegal immigration back to the conversation.
I'll be paying attention.
8 comments:
Shoot them on sight ! THAT will stop the illegal flow across the borders.
Close down the Indian Reservations that border two countries.
The Native-Americans are still waging war against the white-eyes by aiding & abetting illegal activity of all kinds.
Get Tough or get out !
10:35...your rant is clearly intended to paint a negative image of people who adhear to border security. We see thru your thin attempt. Illegal immigration continues todominate the housing, jobs and healthcare dilemma here in tv US. Your insistance on open borders and the free flow of undocumented slave labor will be the great demise of our working families across America. Grow up.
11:33 Dude,, you are ignorant, sorry to say,,
THAT is NOT what i was saying,, i was saying to stop all illegals,, shoot a few the rest wont come over -
i am against all illegal entry by everyone who tries,, esp Muslims, but i oppose Latin illegals too
National Security is no joke to me, on all levels, financial security, job security, national security
re-read my post,, & get smart while reading,,
Luckily Napolitano is smarter than these posters. Businesses that employ illegals force down wages and hurt our economy. They are the criminals, illegals are the exploited victims. If it cost three times as much to build a house, we'd have no housing crisis right now. Blatantly violating our laws like the two crooked border patrol agents that Lou Dobbs loves so much is self-defeating. Bigotry disguised as patriotism just doesn't work.
Name a country that has completely open borders. Didn't think so.
You cant get into half the countries throughout Europe without triplicate papers and that liberal haven FRANCE is willing to jail people at the ports of entry if you are found suspicious. Crossing from Guatemala to Mexico illegally will get you killed. Funny how the Mexican government sees the issue both ways.
6:10 - The sea ports and the airports throughout Mexico are accomplices in this as well. Letting people from Ireland, Poland, Greece, you name it, enter their country with the intent to trek to the US just like their own.
The Mexican government endorses this action. I don't see how 4:59 can say there's bigotry here when the whole world is climbing over the fence.
Hey people, the biggest offenders are Canadians! I think it's pretty clear bigotry is the prime motivator on this thread. "Esp. muslims" is overt. Isn't this a progressive blog? Sounds pretty bad here. (Although not as nasty as Abe's blog has been.)
No mention of Immigration reform from Obama, Napolitano was there but the agenda for year one didn't seem to include the amnesty threat some expected. Whew!
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