Today, President-Elect Barack Obama's nominee for Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano will go through the confirmation process in DC.Why is this important to Danbury...because of President-Elect and nominee to head DHS have a vastly different approach to immigration enforcement that the anti-immigrant community here in the city WON'T like.
President-Elect Obama and Napolitano are on record as someone who doesn't like the way ICE is enforcing policy. As well noted, in a speech to the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic advocacy group, Obama has talked about communities being "terrorized by ICE immigration raids." As USA TODAY note, Napolitano has taken a much more moderate approach to immigration that has long irritated the anti-immigrant xenophobes.
Arizona's governor since 2003, Napolitano vetoed hot-button bills to require police enforcement of immigration laws and to bar illegal migrants from receiving state tuition aid and other education benefits.
[...]
Napolitano shuns ideological talk and expresses positions in terms of practicality. The bill last year to require police enforcement of immigration laws was widely opposed by immigrant advocates as punitive. Napolitano called it "simply an unnecessary, unfunded mandate to law enforcement."
That's not to say that Napolitano is against enforcement...but with the economy being the top concern among voters in the country (while the topic of immigration couldn't make the top five on list of concerns), the waste of time spent of by ICE will result to something even the mayor has off-handedly acknowledged...the anti-immigrant pipe dream of a 287g partnership in Danbury will NEVER become a reality.
You can watch Napolitano answer questions during her confirmation hearing live online by below (you can turn the feed off by clicking on the power button on the lower left hand of the video feed). NOTE: Although the hearing is over, you can still watch the video, which is set for a continuous loop.
UPDATE: The live feed is closed. I'll post the Youtube video footage of the hearings once it's available.
On September 26, 2007, ten plaintiffs filed suit in response to an arrest of aday laborers at a public park in Danbury, Connecticut. Plaintiffs amended their complaint on November 26, 2007.
