Ask Janet Napolitano questions in Washington DC: Friday, November 13, 2009

[UPDATES BELOW]

This Friday the 13th of November 2009, Janet Napolitano of the Department of Homeland Security will be speaking at the Center for American Progress, and there might be some form of question and answer session. If you're in Washington DC and can go there and ask her one of my questions - or a tough question you can provide - I urge you to do so. If you do get to ask the question, please at least write down her response or even better get it on video.

The details are at americanprogress.org/events/2009/11/Napolitano.html and you have to RSVP.

Note that she'll be introduced by John Podesta and the moderator is Angela Kelley, both of CAP; if you can't ask Napolitano a question see if you can ask it of one of them.

If anyone leaves a comment here indicating that they'll be going, I can provide the questions.

UPDATE: Here's the start of a question. It's incredibly wordy and complicated, so spice it up with gestures, very brief asides, etc. And, print out several copies of this MPR report and hand them out to anyone who wants background information:

"I wanted to ask you about a recent enforcement action in Minneapolis. DHS sent out letters to hundreds of employees of the janitorial company ABM, informing those employees of a mismatch between their Social Security numbers and their other information and asking them to provide proof that they were eligible to work in the U.S. When about 1200 of those employees failed to do so, the company fired them, and a local non-profit says that - out of that 1200 - only about 10 of them might be able to become legal workers. So, virtually all of the 1200 who were fired are here illegally.

And, a local paper reports that ABM is no longer hiring new janitors: in other words, all or most of those 1200 janitorial jobs were filled, and presumably by legal workers. In other words, because of what DHS did, legal workers - no doubt many or most U.S. citizens - were able to take jobs that had previously been taken by illegal aliens. One can assume that ABM's new employees had previously been unemployed or underemployed. So, because of what DHS did, hundreds of U.S. citizens and legal workers were able to find jobs.

That same dynamic has happened after past immigration enforcement actions: once illegal aliens are taken off the job, U.S. citizens and legal workers rush in to take the jobs that those illegal aliens had been taking [illustrate with hand gesture]. I'm sure the hundreds of previously unemployed U.S. citizens are grateful to you for enforcing the law.

[briefly pause to see if she pats herself on the back]

However, what DHS didn't do is conduct enforcement actions against the illegal aliens that ABM had been employing; those illegal aliens were free to go. Some may have returned to their countries of origin, but most probably stayed right there in the Twin Cities and are part of that city's labor market. And, many or most of those illegal aliens have probably found jobs at other local businesses; there are thousands and thousands of businesses in the Twin Cities. We can safely assume that hundreds of those former ABM workers are now taking jobs elsewhere in Minnesota or other states.

My question to you is this: if you had sought to deport those illegal aliens rather than simply letting them back into the labor pool, wouldn't U.S. citizens and legal workers be doing the jobs that the illegal aliens are now doing? I'd appreciate it if you could - at least initially - give me a simple yes or no answer: if you had deported those illegal aliens, wouldn't hundreds of U.S. citizens have jobs today?"

UPDATE 2: Here's the non-novel-length version of the above (the last paragraph is the same):

"A company in Minneapolis recently fired hundreds of illegal alien janitors, and Americans rushed in to take those jobs [illustrate with hand gesture]. However, DHS didn't try to deport the illegal aliens who'd been fired, and hundreds of them are probably now working at different companies in Minneapolis.

My question to you is this: if you had sought to deport those illegal aliens rather than simply letting them back into the labor pool, wouldn't U.S. citizens and legal workers be doing the jobs that the illegal aliens are now doing? I'd appreciate it if you could - at least initially - give me a simple yes or no answer: if you had deported those illegal aliens, wouldn't hundreds of U.S. citizens have jobs today?"

UPDATE 3: In her remarks, she promoted comprehensive immigration reform, aka amnesty. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like anyone was moved to go show how she's wrong.

Comments

I couldn't stand to look at her; someone else will have to do it.

when you look at Janet Napolitano you are looking at the drug dealers of the third world, when you look at her you are looking at a mass killer of American rights and you are looking at evil, she is a total maxist communist/nazi occult pig and a lover of evil.

Tell us what you REALLY think!!... I do concur with your estimation of FAT Janet