Thursday, March 28, 2024

Napolitano Hosts Immigration Reform Meeting

napolitanoAccording to a Rasmussen telephone poll conducted in July of this year, fifty one percent of Arizona voters believe immigration reform is more important than health care reform; forty five percent put healthcare on top. Although polls are not perfect, the fact that more Arizona voters place immigration reform over health care reform is very telling.

Arizona, along with other border states, feel the impact of illegal immigration disproportionately more than the other states in the nation. Many of these residents feel the Federal Government, over the last twenty years, has done little to address this issue.

Health care reform is dominating public debates and the news, but immigration reform continues to remain an important issue, especially for those closest to it.

In order to address this issue, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano is hosting a meeting today with 130 immigrant advocates, business and labor leaders, and law enforcement representatives to discuss immigration policy.

This meeting will be an opportunity for many Latinos and immigrant advocates to express their concern that Secretary Napolitano is continuing many of the controversial Bush-era enforcement tactics and not doing enough to ensure the realization of comprehensive immigration reform. President Obama has said that it will be 2010 before reform is addressed by Congress, but many would like to see action before then.

San Francisco Examiner