Q & A

JANET NAPOLITANO ON THE BORDER, IMMIGRATION AND MORE

The Homeland Security Secretary Talks About Immigration Reform,
Overhauling Bush Administration Policies and Changes in Detention Policy.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is attending a
conference in Texas on border security. She sat down with a Times
reporter Monday to discuss a number of issues, including the Mexican
drug war, immigration detention in the U.S. and legislative reforms.

[Q] How effective have the new technology and extra personnel at the
border been, and what more can be done to target the drug cartels and
border violence?

[A] They have been very effective because they have been coordinated,
they have been targeted, they have been done in collaboration with
the Mexicans, which is a change from years past. . . . How has it
worked so far? It's done well. What do we need to be doing more of or
do differently? We want to continue our joint efforts to add to
Mexican civilian law enforcement. At some point, for example, the
military needs to leave Ciudad Juarez and we need to have a civilian
law enforcement capacity there. . . . You have got to be able to
match manpower with technology, with really good, smart, targeted,
intelligence-driven law enforcement to really have a system that makes sense.

[Q] What impact do you think the recently announced immigration
detention overhaul will have on some of the identified problems,
including inadequate healthcare?

[A] I think it will have a major effect. On detention, what we have
found is just really a lack of standard uniformity applied throughout
the system. There are a variety of reasons for that . . . but
whenever you detain somebody under the rule of law, you have an
obligation to do so meeting certain standards, safety and healthcare
and the like. . . . And so everything we are doing is designed to
make sure we are meeting those standards.

[Q] You are trying to distinguish yourself from the Bush
administration by making a lot of policy changes. Nevertheless, there
are complaints that you are continuing the policies of the previous
administration. What is your response?

[A] Some of this is not Bush policy. It's the law. The underlying
complaint is that we are simply enforcing the law. Because people are
unhappy with the underlying law doesn't mean that we are not going to
enforce it. . . . There is a big effort among many that we need
comprehensive immigration reform. I, for one, have said it myself and
have been an advocate for it. . . .

What we are doing is smart and I think very effective enforcement. .
. . If all you do is a set of raids and you pick up employees and you
have a press conference -- but the employer is left or the corporate
entity is left to simply sit still for a little bit and go back into
the illegal labor market and continue making money and exploiting
that market -- then you really haven't done very much in terms of a
deterrent aspect. The guidance has been shifted to really . . . work
with [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] to build prosecutable
cases against employers who deserve prosecution and also to increase
the use of I-9 audits so that folks know out there that we are paying
attention. . . . That is classic law enforcement. Classic law
enforcement is that you punish but you also deter and that was not
happening. . . . With the changes we have made, we will have a much
bigger impact on the illegal labor demand side.

[Q] What is next in terms of enforcement?

What's next is probably building on what's been done. In other words,
I really want to see this worksite enforcement move. So really
emphasizing that, working with the U.S. attorneys in terms of
actually bringing cases. I really want to make sure that the
beginnings of the things that we have started on, detention
improvement, that we carry through with those. . . . Let's announce
it, sustain it and really build it into the system.

[Q] On immigration reform, what are the challenges you are seeing,
and how do you bring people together -- labor and business, Democrats
and Republicans -- on the key issues, such as the estimated 12
million illegal immigrants in this country?

[A] It's clear that everybody wants it. . . . If I go into a room in
a roundtable and I ask, "How many of you are in favor of illegal
immigration? Raise your hand," I will have unanimity. Not a hand will
go up. Then I say, "How many of you are of the view that we need to
make changes to the existing law?" Every hand goes up. . . . You have
got that consensus out there. So the challenge really is to say, OK,
what are some value-added things we can add to enforcement and at the
same time really begin looking afresh at future labor flows and also
the issue of those in the country already? . . . Some of these things
have already had a majority of the Congress vote for, just never in
one bill. . . .

The American people have to have confidence that whatever is done
will be carried out, that we won't adopt a bill and then not enforce
it over the next 20 years. But as we build that confidence, and we
will, part of what we are doing is saying that we need to have smart
enforcement of our laws: What makes sense from a labor and economic
standpoint? How do you do this and protect the American worker? How
do you do this and make sure we have access to the labor capital a
growing economy demands?