Regional
(2010-06-24)
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DENVER, CO
(KUNC) -
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is offering reassurances to Hispanic political leaders that the Obama Administration is committed to overhauling federal immigration laws. The former Arizona governor got a warm reception yesterday during a keynote address at the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials' annual meeting in Denver.
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Secretary Napolitano's visit to Colorado comes as her boss, President Obama, is asking Congress to approve more than a half billion dollars to beef up security forces along the US-Mexican border. Speaking to a mostly-friendly audience of Hispanic leaders, Napolitano said an immigration overhaul and border security can go hand in hand.
"And make no mistake about it, President Obama and the administration are committed to comprehensive immigration reform," she said.
Napolitano went on to highlight the president's efforts to speed up citizen naturalization applications. And she didn't resist taking a jab at those who say the US-Mexican border should be secured first, before a path to citizenship can be considered for people living here illegally.
"They keep moving the goal post, and the words secure, really becomes effectively seal the border," she said.
Her insistence that a bill must pass though is reassuring to prominent Latino activists here like Polly Baca, who was the first Hispanic woman elected to the Colorado legislature.
"If you have dark skin, you now have greater problems and greater issues," Baca said, "and until you get comprehensive immigration reform I think we're going to see states continue to take draconian measures similar to Arizona."
But backers of Arizona's tough new immigration law say it's necessary in order to quell what's been an outbreak of drug-fueled violence along that state's border.
Back at the podium, Secretary Napolitano did not mention the law, saying only that the administration has devoted more resources than any other toward US-Mexico border security. She also didn't give a time line for when the president wants to see it passed.
"Such reform, takes time," she said, "It is a bitterly divided Congress right now."
Some think Congress won't even touch the issue this year, an election year when the bill's main backers' - Democrats - are seen as increasingly vulnerable.
But Latino activists like Polly Baca say they're getting increasingly restless over the lack of federal action. Latinos turned out in force to help Democrats win key states like Colorado in 2008.
"I am concerned that it might not happen this year," she said, "I think we need to put pressure on Congress to make sure it happens this year."
Immigrant supporters like to point out that President Obama campaigned on a federal immigration overhaul in 2008. Two years on, they may be getting a little disillusioned, says political science professor Rob Preuhs. He tracks the political influence of western Latinos at Denver's Metro State College.
"The advent of passage of such laws as Arizona's has confounded Latino voters in the sense that they don't feel that either party is working very strongly to help their interests," Preuhs said.
More than half of all Latino voters in Colorado are registered as democrats, compared to just 15% republican. Preuhs says Democrats can continue to count on the Latino vote. But he says they may not be able to count on Latinos turning out in force, as they did in 2008.
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