DHS Commissar Napolitano: "This Is A Civilian Border"

From Politico and FAIR:

Napolitano: 'This is a civilian border'


By: Josh Gerstein

September 17, 2010 05:13 PM EDT



Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano on Friday warned against militarizing the U.S.-Mexico border and insisted that, despite a public outcry over illegal immigration and violence in the area, security along the nearly 2000-mile-long dividing line with Mexico is actually improving.



“This is a civilian border,” Napolitano said during a lunch Friday with reporters in Washington, responding to a question about sending more U.S. National Guard troops to beef up border security.



“The National Guard is not designed to be a substitute for civilian law enforcement,” Napolitano said. “Civilian law enforcement is being ‘plussed-up’ at record rates. And it’s being ‘plussed up’ all along the border. It’s being backed up by state of the art technology and it’s being backed up by infrastructure and that’s the way you have a secure border area.”



Despite Napolitano’s reservations about the utility of Guard troops along the border, the Obama Administration has boosted their ranks: in May, responding to urgent requests from state governors, Obama agreed to send 1,200 Guardsmen and women to the border region.



However, some Republicans want more. Gov. Rick Perry (R-Tex.) has loudly demanded a meeting with Obama to complain that too few troops are being sent to his state’s stretch of border. So far, no White House meeting has been scheduled.



“The National Guard mission there is to supplement the ongoing…border patrol efforts. And they are going where folks who have looked at the border across from California to Texas ascertain where they are most needed and, if that need changes, they will be moved,” Napolitano said.



Napolitano, who was Arizona’s governor before joining the administration, had rather blunt retort to Perry; if he wants more Guard along the border, he can send them there from Texas himself.



“He always has the ability, in a way, to bring up National Guard, if he’s willing to pay for them. That’s always an option available to a governor,” Napolitano said, acknowledging that tight state budgets might make that difficult.



“But I think the key thing is, let’s look at the metrics. Illegal immigration across the border is way down as measured by number of apprehensions,” she said. “Drug seizures, gun seizures, cash seizures way up. And we are paying particular attention to border communities because of the fear of spillover violence from cartel wars that are underway in Mexico.”



Napolitano said she was not suggesting that Perry should send more troops to the border, just noting that he could. “The last thing I want is a headline saying, ‘Rick Perry: call up your National Guard,” she said.









Asked about Napolitano’s remarks, a Perry aide noted that Napolitano repeatedly called on the Bush Administration to deploy troops to the border when she was Arizona's governor.



“As a former border governor, Secretary Napolitano knows how greatly unjust it is for this administration to pass the cost and burden of keeping the entire nation safe on to the taxpayers of Texas,” the Perry spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger said. “Secretary Napolitano, of all people, knows the value that National Guard troops provide along the border in the absence of adequate Border Patrol agents. “



During the hour-long Q-and-A session, organized by the Christian Science Monitor, Napolitano dismissed rumors that her agency will grant widespread amnesty for illegal immigrants, even if Congress does not act on comprehensive immigration legislation.



“The department does not intend to do that,” Napolitano said. “The immigration issue is not going to go away. At some point the Congress needs to address it—needs to address it now and we are prepared to sit down when that time comes.”



Amidst complaints from Latino groups that President Barack Obama enforcing current laws too strictly, Napolitano acknowledged “record amounts” of deportations. However, she said the primary focus of her agency is dealing with undocumented immigrants convicted of crimes.



“We are deporting more criminal aliens from this country than at any time in our country’s history. We have changed the priorities to focus on criminal aliens. That does not in and of itself however mean that others are not subject to deportation,” she said. “The law doesn’t really permit that. But the enforcement focus is clearly on the public safety aspect.”



Napolitano also rejected a suggestion that her agency might unilaterally exempt from deportation all illegal immigrants who are enrolled in college.



“We handle those on a case-by-cases basis,” she said. “We have granted humanitarian parole or deferred action on individual cases but we have not done so collectively to the entire group that’s really for the Congress to consider,”.



Napolitano did underscore the administration’s backing for a bill, known as the DREAM Act, which would allow some aliens to stay in the U.S. if they came illegally as minors and are attending high school or college. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has said he plans to attach the measure to a defense authorization bill scheduled for consideration on the Senate floor next week.



“We do believe the DREAM Act would be a good thing. This is intended for people who have no culpability really for how they were brought across the border,” she said. “Many of them have no relationship at all to their country of origin, if they even speak the language there.”





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