McCain, Napolitano Square Off On Immigration Reform

From The American Spectator:

AmSpecBlog


McCain, Napolitano Square Off on Immigration Enforcement

By W. James Antle, III on 9.22.10 @ 4:51PM



Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) had a heated exchange with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, a fellow Arizonan, today on the issue of immigration. Fox News captures some of the sparks:



"What we have done in the past two years is put more resources on the Southwest border than ever before, both in federal [efforts] and providing resources to the states," she said during a six-minute exchange with McCain that became increasingly heated. "We have removed and will be removing more criminal aliens from this country than ever before, and I think that's the right policy. ... I measure what we're doing by the results, and what should be going up is going up, and what should be going down is going down"



McCain, however, suggested Napolitano, who was governor of Arizona before joining the Obama administration, is the one misinterpreting things.



"From my visits to the southern part of our state, they don't see this dramatic improvement, Madam Secretary," he told her. "In fact, they are more worried than they've ever been. They see continued home invasions, they see continued requirements for our government to put up signs that say, 'Warning to our citizens' that they are in a drug smuggling area, a human smuggling area. They don't have the same security that people do in other parts of our country."



These hearings came as the Obama administration is being tied to memoranda looking at ways the executive branch could become more lenient toward illegal immigrants. Senate Republicans are concerned that the administration is pursuing a backdoor amnesty, a charge DHS denies vehemently. But the administration is clearly focusing on the removal of illegal immigrants who are convicted criminals while largely leaving the rest alone. McCain has traditionally been an amnesty supporter but moved to the right on the issue during his primary campaign against immigration hawk J.D. Hayworth.

Also, from The American Spectator:

12:16 PM (11 hours ago)Senate Republicans Ask Secretary Napolitano About Backdoor Amnestyfrom The American Spectator and AmSpecBlog by W. James Antle, III


1 person liked thisA group of Senate Republicans sent Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano a letter after learning of the DHS backdoor amnesty memo I reported on yesterday. According to Homeland Security Today:



"Several of us have written to you previously about a USCIS memorandum entitled 'Administrative Alternatives to Comprehensive Immigration Reform,'" the senators wrote. "We now understand that an additional memorandum, which laid out some of the same proposals for granting immigration benefits to illegal immigrants... and which contained extensive discussions of the political considerations for such actions, was prepared at DHS headquarters for your review earlier this year."



The senators are more skeptical of Napolitano's claim that the earlier USCIS memo was just nonbinding internal deliberations. "Your assurances do little to assuage our concerns about repeated references in the memoranda to find other ways, on an administrative level, to make most illegal immigrants in the country legal," the lawmakers wrote. The signers include Sens. Jeff Sessions (Ala.), Orrin Hatch (Utah), Chuck Grassley (Iowa), Jon Kyl (Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (SC), John Cornyn (Texas), and Tom Coburn (Okla.), all Republicans on the Judiciary Committee.



On top of all this, there was yet another draft memo advising Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers not to detain illegal immigrants under certain circumstances. "Whether or not the proposals ... have been officially implemented, it is increasingly clear that this Administration is following the spirit of these proposals by dramatically narrowing its efforts to remove whole classes of illegal immigrants," the senators wrote.