WASHINGTON — As governor of Arizona, Janet Napolitano last year signed into law the nation's harshest penalty for employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants, a measure that would take away their business licenses for a second violation.
She called it the "business death penalty" and the "most aggressive action in the country" to stem the flow of illegal workers. She also criticized Congress and the federal government for failing to act on immigration overhaul. "The states will take the lead, and Arizona will take the lead among the states," she said.
Now, Napolitano may have a chance to lead the federal effort to enforce immigration laws if, as expected, she is nominated by President-elect Barack Obama to head the Department of Homeland Security.
Her record in Arizona, where she has been both the U.S. attorney and the state's attorney general, suggests she is willing to be a tough enforcer. Her state has a 376-mile border with Mexico, and she was the first governor to call for stationing the National Guard along it.
But Napolitano also has shown an instinct for finding her way through the immigration minefield in a state where political battle lines were well drawn. She took a centrist position, supporting strong steps to prevent new illegal immigrants from coming to Arizona, while opposing most measures that would punish illegal immigrants who were already living and working there.
Bucking popular sentiment, she vetoed a bill in 2005 that would have cut off in-state tuition aid to students in the country illegally. "This bill goes too far by punishing even longtime residents of this state who were brought here as small children by their parents," she said.
She also vetoed bills that would have required the local police to enforce the immigration laws by arresting people in the state illegally.
"The illegal immigrant has in Gov. Napolitano his best friend in the state," Republican state Rep. Tom Boone, a sponsor of these measures, said in reaction to her veto.
Nonetheless, the Democratic governor has remained popular in Republican-leaning Arizona. She was reelected two years ago by a nearly 2-1 ratio, and her approval rating is well over 70%.
"She has attempted to take a middle ground, and her view is it has calmed the debate in Arizona," said John Trasvina, president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund in Los Angeles.
