The Three-Legged Stool

UPDATED 11/16/09: Check out the video of the Secretary's speech at the bottom of the post.

Secretary Napolitano delivered a speech this morning at the Center for American Progress, outlining the Obama Administration’s strong support for reform of the nation’s immigration laws, and delivering a clear message on her commitment to the effort required to change the status quo. “We are determined to deal with long lingering problems that cloud our future,” the Secretary remarked. We’ve discussed this issue on the blog before, but as the Secretary said today, these are “critical challenges that have been ignored in Washington for too long.” We’re going to start talking about them more on the blog in the coming months.

Reform isn’t just a legislative benchmark for this administration; for the department, first and foremost, it is about keeping our country secure. By almost any account, millions of people are living – and many working – in this country illegally. They are families and individuals; migrant workers and seamstresses; neighbors and fellow church-goers – individuals that deserve a clear, fair and firm process. This is just one part of what the Secretary referred to today as the “three-legged stool” reform that we need.

“Let me be clear: when I talk about 'immigration reform,' I’m referring to what I call the 'three-legged stool' that includes a commitment to serious and effective enforcement, improved legal flows for families and workers, and a firm but fair way to deal with those who are already here. That’s the way that this problem has to be solved, because we need all three aspects to build a successful system. This approach has at its heart the conviction that we must demand responsibility and accountability from everyone involved in the system: immigrants, employers and government. And that begins with fair, reliable enforcement.”

The Secretary noted that while DHS has already made many reforms over the last nine months within the current legal framework, real reform is necessary to address the larger challenges we face on this issue.

"Our system must be strong enough to prevent illegal entry and to get criminal aliens off our streets and out of the country. But it must also be smart enough to reward the hard work and entrepreneurial spirit that immigrants have always brought to America—traits that have built our nation."

We’ll continue to update you, and encourage you to leave comments and let us know your thoughts. A full transcript of her remarks is posted on our site.

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Streaming Now: Secretary Napolitano Delivers Remarks at the Center for American Progress

The Secretary is delivering remarks on the Obama administration’s efforts to reform the U.S. immigration system. You can check it out at the following link:

http://www.americanprogress.org/events/2009/11/Napolitano.html/streaming.html

Working Together for Immigration Reform

(President Barack Obama talks with members of Congress to discuss immigration, Thursday, June 25, 2009,
in the State Dinning Room of the White House. From left; Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, Rep. Luis Guitierrez,
D-Ill., Rep. Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y., Rep. James Clyburn, D - S.C. the president, Vice President Joe Biden,
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Secretary Napolitano was at the White House yesterday with the President and members of Congress working on identifying a way forward on comprehensive immigration reform. From the White House blog:

While Congressional leaders are working to tackle the complexities of immigration reform, the Administration has already taken steps to improve the system. The FBI has cleared much of the backlog of immigration background checks, the Department of Homeland Security is speeding up citizenship petitions and in conjunction with the Department of Labor, they are working to crack down on employers who are exploiting illegal workers. The President also announced a new collaborative effort that will utilize technology to improve legal immigration:

"Today I'm pleased to announce a new collaboration between my Chief Information Officer, my Chief Performance Officer, my Chief Technologies Officer and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Office to make the agency much more efficient, much more transparent, much more user-friendly than it has been in the past.

In the next 90 days, USCIS will launch a vastly improved Web site that will, for the first time ever, allow applicants to get updates on their status of their applications via e-mail and text message and online. And anybody who's dealt with families who are trying to deal with -- navigate the immigration system, this is going to save them huge amounts of time standing in line, waiting around, making phone calls, being put on hold. It's an example of some things that we can do administratively even as we're working through difficult issues surrounding comprehensive immigration.

And the idea is very simple here: We're going to leverage cutting-edge technology to reduce the unnecessary paperwork, backlogs, and the lack of transparency that's caused so many people so much heartache." --More on the White House Blog.

At the President’s direction, Secretary Napolitano will convene a group of leaders from the White House and Congress to begin identifying the way forward on comprehensive immigration reform.