Janet Napolitano wearing her "colors" of a Minute Man outfit expose Napolitano's true nature. Napolitano has always chosen the politically expedient path to advance her career track. In Arizona her ever increasing hardness was to win support from Arizona's conservative mainstream. Today, Napolitano's attitudes toward immigration mirror President Obama's. If Napolitano ever returns to Arizona, there is no doubt Napolitano would once again put on the cloak of Republican conservatism. Hispanic News believes Napolitano should stay in Washington and never return to Arizona.

Politically Expedient Napolitano Now to Embark on Immigration Reform!

For the moment, Lou Dobbs may be gone but Lou Dobbs wannabes — Republicans — can still be found in Washington.  

First elected governor in 2002 with support from the Hispanic electorate, she opposed a 2004 Arizona ballot measure that sought to bar illegal immigrants from receiving some public social services. The following year, voicing skepticism about the effectiveness of Bush administration plans to improve fences at the border, she famously proclaimed, "You show me a 50-foot wall, and I'll show you a 51-foot ladder." However, since becoming chief of the Homeland Security Department, the agency responsible for the border fence, she has promised to complete the unfinished portions and has stepped up immigration audits of employers.

Similarly, as officials from Napolitano's agency and the White House work with bipartisan congressional staff to prepare immigration bills that most likely will be introduced in December and January, the consistent theme has been toughness. Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), who as chairman of the Senate's immigration subcommittee will take a lead role in drafting legislation, has said a bipartisan immigration bill is doomed "if my colleagues on the other side of the aisle do not believe Democrats are serious about enforcement." Schumer even denounced use of the term "undocumented workers," suggesting it conveys legitimacy and signals the government "is not serious about combating illegal immigration."

In a speech this month laying out the need for reform, Napolitano emphasized a "three-legged stool" approach — regulating the flow of immigrants, dealing with those who are already here, but beginning, she said, with "fair, reliable enforcement."

Immigration reform advocates trying to build momentum to produce a new law point to favorable poll results on immigration and a desire by both parties to be responsive to Hispanic voters. But proponents will face stiff obstacles, particularly if a bill includes provisions for what business lobbyists call "future flow" — allowing employers to bring in foreign workers. Unions worry without safeguards, imported labor will displace American workers.

The larger stumbling block will be the "tough and fair pathway to earned legal status," as Napolitano put it. It was the legalization aspect of her speech that garnered most news media attention, even though it basically restated President Obama's campaign pledge to bring "the millions of illegal immigrants in this country out of the shadows . . . by meeting a number of requirements — including registering, paying a fine, passing a criminal background check, fully paying all taxes and learning English."

History shows anti-immigrant sentiment is generally highest during economic downturns, and groups favoring immigration restrictions, such as the Federation for American Immigration Reform, or FAIR, are already citing high U.S. unemployment as a reason to oppose immigration bills. FAIR is joining with the "tea party" crowd that emerged during the healthcare debate, a loud and angry coalition that will be unswayed by the efforts of Napolitano, the Obama administration and their congressional allies to decorate immigration reform packages with law-and-order ribbons.