Obama’s next pick

The Department of Homeland Security is the mother of all bureaucracies. It’s got more than 200,000 employees from 22 government agencies. Broadly speaking, DHS is responsible for immigration, border enforcement, disaster relief and protecting the country for terrorist attacks. This analyst says priority #1 is to make DHS work which is a major challenge of executive ability. He says Napolitano would be a great choice for DHS Secretary. One issue Napolitano has lots of experience with is illegal immigration. She declared a state of emergency along the border with Mexico in Arizona and called for the State Guard to be deployed there at Washington’s expense. This analyst says Napolitano is the closest the Democrats could get to an immigration hawk. He has dark suspicions about a Napolitano nomination and he thinks Obama is looking ahead to passing comprehensive immigration reform which includes amnesty for immigrants already living in the U.S. illegally. This analyst isn’t so sure about that and he says he would welcome the appointment of someone like Napolitano who welcomes immigration reform. But he says we shouldn’t be hopeful that reform would happen anytime soon. Besides that he says there isn’t much of a constituency for immigration reform because its strongest supporters can’t vote.