US President-elect Barack Obama [2]'s pick to run the Department of Homeland Security, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, is described by the AP [3] Nov. 20 as "tough on illegal immigration"—although she has been a skeptic on the border wall, having once said, "You build a 50-foot wall, somebody will find a 51-foot ladder." We've noted that she signed [4] last year's state law imposing sanctions on employers who hire undocumented immigrants, but has opposed or vetoed [5] other more draconian measures. In 2005, she declared a state of emergency [6] for Arizona counties along the Mexican border, and pressured Homeland Security for stepped up enforcement.
Reuters [7] also reports Nov. 20 that Obama has chosen retired Gen. James Jones, former top operational commander of NATO (Supreme Allied Commander Europe), to head the National Security Council. SourceWatch [8] informs us that he was an early skeptic on the Iraq war, stating before the invasion: "You better have Plan B in your hip pocket, because when you attack someone who has any kind of well-trained army on their homeland they are going to fight differently than if they engage you, say, in Kuwait."
In contrast to some earlier appointments, this appears to be a tilt against the neocons [9] and to the pragmatists [10].
See our last posts on the politics of immigration [11] and the struggle for the border [12].
