Napolitano Controversy
While the appointment of Janet Napolitano as president of the University of California system (UC) caused a stir, leaving the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is considered an opportunity to reduce the deportations, which in recent years have broken records.
Napolitano, 55, was named Friday as the next head of the UC system, whose ten universities studied more than 234 thousand students. If approved by the Board of Regents on Thursday, she will be the first woman to head the institution in its 145 year history. Traditionally, the position has been filled by academics.
The former governor of Arizona was chosen from a list of over 300 candidates. A special committee decided to put it at the head of the prestigious higher education system for being, among other reasons, “an ardent defender of the federal Dream Act and architect of a policy that protects undocumented youth deportations pursuing a college education.”
This, in reference to the deferred action (CCIP), which since 2012 granted work permits and drivers licenses to undocumented students, called “dreamers”.
“While some may feel that it is an unconventional choice, Secretary Napolitano is definitely the right person at the right time to lead this great university,” said Sherry Lansing, chairwoman of the committee in charge of the election.
On the other hand, groups that defend immigrants criticize Napolitano was “insensitive” to the separation of families and consider their management in DHS was “a complete failure”, so asking President Barack Obama to turn the page and nominate a more human secretary.
“We are excited to see it go,” said Chris Newman, legal director of the National Network (NDLON). “The work of Janet Napolitano on immigration-perhaps with the exception of DACA, has been an absolute failure […] ultimately be remembered as the secretary repugnant policies that led Arizona to the rest of the country,” he added.
Newman says that one of his legacies is that the remaining portions of SB 1070 are similar to Secure Communities Program, which has deported thousands of illegal immigrants for minor offenses, through active collaboration between local police and immigration agents.
“The departure of President Napolitano offers the opportunity to reverse the course of policies ‘Arizonificación'” said attorney NDLON.
A similar view has Jorge Mario Cabrera, spokesman for the Coalition for Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA). He believes that the next leader of the DHS should be aware of what needs to be corrected in the immigration system and be focused on protecting the country.
“Secretary Napolitano will be remembered as a figure detached the suffering of immigrants, oblivious to injustice and inconsistency of immigration laws,” said Cabrera.
To Salvador Sanabria, executive director of The Rescue, bittersweet legacy left Napolitano led an office from January 2009 (it highlights the strengthening of border enforcement as a negative) it could be a lesson for their performance in UC system.
“We need a leader who save money for more students, more children of migrants are admitted to universities and have a better future,” he said.
A Napolitano, whose connection with higher education institutions dating back to his years at the University of Santa Clara, where she became the first woman with the best average, expect a challenge than in UC, but no less difficult to integrate the Obama cabinet.
“The UC Napolitano exercise begins in a time when enrollment soared, degraded the quality of patient care, increased privatization of public resources college, there is an unprecedented debt, there are unparalleled executive excesses and has decreased taxpayer confidence in the leadership of the university, “explains Kathryn Lybarger, president of the system’s largest union, AFSCME 3299.
In the halls of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) there are high expectations, as well as uncertainty of what she can accomplish. “I do not know if the system will remove the pit,” says Moses Arriola, a law student. “She is very skilled,” said Peter Hahn, a student of psychology.
The UC system has ten academic campuses, five medical centers and three affiliated national laboratories. Its enrollment is 234 thousand students and their payroll are more than 208 000 teachers and employees. Its annual budget exceeds 24 billion dollars.
