WASHINGTON — Janet Napolitano, President-elect Barack Obama’s nominee to head the Department of Homeland Security, vowed Thursday at her Senate confirmation hearing to shift the focus of U.S. immigration enforcement from illegal workers to the prosecution of employers who hire those workers, signaling a clear break with the outgoing Bush administration.
In remarks and written answers to senators, the two- term Arizona governor offered few details but said she would lead a broad re-examination of the department’s security policies in the coming year. Among other things, she said she would revisit a controversial and costly plan to tighten national standards for driver’s licenses, devote more resources to rail and maritime security, and may push back a 2012 deadline to screen all U.S.-bound containers at foreign ports.
“The department has come a long way, but there is a ways to go,” Napolitano, 51, told members of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. “Changes need to be made.”
