Napolitano asserts commitment to interior checkpoints
By Daniel Newhauser, Special to the Green Valley News
Published: Wednesday, December 9, 2009 3:28 PM MST
WASHINGTON — Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday that the agency will continue using interior checkpoints as part of its border enforcement plan.
“My view is that they are and should be part of a border strategy so we have some means, off the geographical border, to see what is coming over,” Napolitano said. “How we conduct those checkpoints and whether they cause undue delay, that is an issue we can take a look at going ahead.”
The comments came as the committee chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., questioned the checkpoints. He said he was stopped and grilled at length about his citizenship status by a border agent at an interior checkpoint in Vermont years ago, even after showing his Senate ID.
“I’ve always been concerned with these kinds of checkpoints,” he said. “If (immigrants) really want to get across, they’re not going to use the interstate.”
Senators on the committee quizzed Napolitano as part of the Department of Homeland Security congressional oversight hearing Dec. 9.
Sen. John Kyl, R-Ariz., focused his line of questioning on Operation Streamline, the program under which people caught repeatedly crossing the border illegally are charged with misdemeanors and serve jail time. He said the operation has not been fully implemented in the Tucson Sector and asked Napolitano what her plans are to expand the program.
“There’s a concern, at least among some of us in the Congress, that we do need additional detention space, especially to make something like Operation Streamline work,” Kyl said.
Napolitano responded that she supports the operation and that it is effective. She said the Tucson Sector has enough bed space, but has encountered problems in the form of a recent decision in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco that immigrants cannot be tried en masse under the operation.
“That provides some logistical difficulties,” she said. “Given the volume of cases... we’ve had to be working down there now in terms of how (we can), operationally, address the (Court of Appeals) concerns so we can continue building Streamline in the Tucson Sector.”
Kyl also expressed concerns about the number of agents along the Southwest border. He said government estimates call for a nationwide total of 100 new agents, but an increase of 700 agents along the northern border.
“Obviously, they have to come from somewhere, presumably the southern border,” he said. “Wrong. We can’t do that.”
Napolitano reassured Kyl that the agency will maintain about 20,000 agents along the southern border while increasing numbers in the north by reassigning agents.
“What we’re going to do is reduce headquarter staffing and reduce academy staffing at the Border Patrol to make sure we hit both of those marks and stay within the financial needs of the country,” she said.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said she is concerned about American farmers moving to Mexico because they can’t find agricultural labor. She said 85,000 acres of California and Arizona farmland has already moved to Mexico.
“I am concerned that we are unwittingly presiding over the demise of American agriculture,” she said. “We’re in this great thrust to drive everyone out of this country, no matter how valuable their services may be.”
Feinstein also said that DHS should implement better systems to make sure those with work visas don’t overstay their visits.
Napolitano agreed and said the agency is working on a biometrics system that would be able to track overstays.
Napolitano also said she hopes to see a comprehensive immigration reform bill early next year.
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Mary wrote on Dec 9, 2009 10:04 PM: