Janet Napolitano Likes to Play Pretend

LIKE A FAVORITE CHESS GAME, the White House plays with its constituency, with it’s Latin@ constituency, with its pro-migrant constituency. It is true that Barack Obama ran for President in 2008 on a promise of making immigration a “top priority” in his first year. The White House has not done so. Not unless you count the enforcement-related moves below the radar—initiatives like 287(g), Secure Communities and e-Verify. These actions, though, do nothing so much as funnel nuestra gente into a growing matrix of detention centers that feeds the coffers of the Prison Industrial Complex. All the change we imagined was coming our way, so far, is but huge payoffs to huge entities who prey on the People, from bankers to CCA & GEO.

In terms of the Latino/Pro-Migrant vote, what mostly concerns the White House now is appearance and gamesmanship: how much need be said and done to keep the tide of BrownVotes™ from climbing over the fence of bipartisanship to populate the land of Other? How much and what must be said where to maintain the bright stain of unfulfilled Hopechange?

Today, the agenda includes a meeting hosted by Janet Napolitano, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). She is to meet with “130 immigrant advocates, business and labor leaders, and law enforcement representatives to discuss immigration policy,” as America’s Voice reports. But as that page makes clear, as well as Maribel Hastings (former Washington Correspondent for La Opinión, the largest Spanish language newspaper in the country, and now Senior Advisor to America’s Voice) as well as VivirLatino—there’s a bit of a shell game going on.

Once upon a time, Janet Napolitano had a vision and an understanding of borders and laws and what works and what does not that came out of her living in a bordertown and serving as Governor. She said things like:

The Senate made real progress toward reform; but Republican leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives would have none of it. President Bush and I share a desire for real, comprehensive immigration reform. By contrast, members of the House would prefer to try to convince you that if you build a wall and live in denial the problem will go away.

It’s a child’s game of “pretend.”

No wall will ever be built; it costs too much money and would take perhaps a decade to complete. Most importantly, it will never work. As long as there are employers willing to break the law and hire illegal immigrants, people will find a way over, under or around any wall. In addition, militarizing the border with Mexico denies the fact Mexico is Arizona’s largest and most profitable trading partner.

—Immigration Roadshow, Janet Napolitano, Aug. 3, 2006

and

Lawmakers should not forget that immigration reform must be truly comprehensive. The country has waited too long to accept anything less.

– New York Times op-ed, Janet Napolitano, 6/1/07

and even

It is fundamentally unfair and unrealistic to suggest that our system remain as it is and ignore the 12 million who ran the gantlet at the border and managed to find work in our country. It is not “amnesty” to require these individuals to earn the privilege of citizenship, as have the millions of immigrants who came before them.

–Republic op-ed, Janet Napolitano

Pretty inspiring, eh?

Of course, all that sentiment came shortly before Ms. Napolitano entered the infamous Vortex of Integrity that siphons away your brain matter and replaces it with White House Dollars. Now, what is the Napolitano person saying?

As Governer, it was “To look ‘tough,’ what little enforcement we have ends up being arbitrary and unfair.” (Washington Post op-ed, 6/10/07) but now, as DHS secretary, her views on enforcement are simply that ““I believe that 287(g) is a powerful tool that we will continue to use” (remarks in El Paso, TX). Oddly, the “arbitrary” and “unfair” parts seemed to have been vacuumed away in the integrity-suckhole of Political SuckCess (to quote Bobby Dylan’s coinage).

Now it’s

We are not going to sit by at the Department of Homeland Security and wait for change in the laws. We’re going to enforce the laws that are…

and so much weaponry and jail and crime talk at the border summit that it’s clear where the White House’s point person on Immigration Reform really plugs in to get charged up.

Napolitano did not discuss the progress of discussions with legislators on comprehensive immigration reform, other than to tell reporters that the conversation was underway and she was working to build support.

Okay…if “support” is translated as “larger numbers of incarcerated brown people,” then DHS is still on target.

I’ll say it my way:

You are sucking the blood of my people and stroking us with assuring whispers of solidarity. I don’t know if you actually think this is a valid strategy, or if it is just a titillating Child’s Game of Pretend. But we are not children, and not only are gente taking matters in their own hands at this point, but we need to.

Same as it ever was.

Perhaps next election we will once again vote with our feet. If we don’t show up at the polls, will you, then, bring the barbed wire to the street?