NDN/NPI Host Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano and A Distinguished Panel to Discuss "21st Century Border"
On April 1, 2011, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano gave a strong defense of the Administration's border enforcement at an event hosted by NDN/NPI on Friday.
Julia Preston of The New York Times has her story here:
"Obama Administration officials, embattled on all sides on immigration, are pushing back to defend their record on border enforcement and deportations of illegal immigrants."
Perhaps most importantly, Secretary Napolitano called on law makers in Congress to stop moving the goal post on Border Security as a means to stop work on a legislative overhaul on the nations immigration laws:
"Ms. Napolitano vented her frustration with Republican lawmakers who have said they will not consider overhaul legislation President Obama supports, which would include legal status for illegal immigrants, until the southwest border is secure. “We can’t keep moving the goal post and saying, when the border is safe we will get to it,” Ms. Napolitano said of the president’s proposal, known as comprehensive immigration reform."
In her speech she noted that the Southwest has seen:
“the biggest surge of manpower and technology to the southwest border ever." The Border Patrol has increased to nearly 21,000 agents, she said, and illegal crossings have fallen by more than a third in the last two years. For the first time, unmanned aerial drones are scanning along the entire length of the border.
The historic efforts on the border have been coupled with the deportation of a record number of undocumented immigrants at 390,000 over the last two years.
The video of Secretary Napolitano's full speach can be seen below.