Napolitano calls Arizona immigration law ‘a shame’

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said a new Arizona law
that allows state police to stop suspected illegal immigrants is “a
shame.”

Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union” with Candy Crowley, Napolitano
said this was the kind of law she would veto when she was governor of
the state.

{mosads}In addition, the Cabinet secretary said the state has seen an
influx of federal resources to handle its illegal immigration problem.

“This
is the type of the law I would veto when I was governor,” Napolitano
said. “It is bad for law enforcement. It takes law enforcement off the
streets looking at the types of crimes they need to prioritize.”

“It is a shame,” Napolitano said. 

On ABC’s “This Week,” Napolitano questioned the law’s constitutionality and said it “does and can invite racial profiling.”

“I think it illustrates the need, as the president has
said, for a bipartisan approach to comprehensive immigration reform, in
this town,” she said. It’s really a cry of frustration from Arizona.”

But those frustrations, she said, run counter to the statistics.

“I will
say that more assets have been put into Arizona in the last 15 months
than ever in history, and actually, the numbers, if you step back and
look at it, the numbers actually are down in terms of apprehensions,
which indicates fewer illegal crossings, but also up in terms of actual
enforcement actions,” the former governor said.