By Khalida Sarwari
U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano will speak at Santa Clara University tonight about the future of immigration enforcement in America and the importance of building a national “culture of readiness.”
Napolitano’s talk, titled “Homeland Security in a Networked Age,” is part of the President’s Speaker Series at the university, from which she graduated in 1979.
Last week, Napolitano announced a package of reforms that will overhaul the way immigrants are detained in the U.S.
Cesar Juarez, an organizer for San Jose-based nonprofit Services, Immigrant Rights & Education Network, or SIREN, said the current system allows for inhumane conditions and inadequate medical treatment for detainees.
“During the Bush administration, people died in those detention centers, many unjust things happened at the detention centers,” Juarez said.
Juarez said Napolitano’s reforms are a step in the right direction but that more needs to be done.
More than 1,000 advocates of immigration reform are expected to march at the university this evening prior to Napolitano’s talk to urge the Obama administration to support just reform for immigrant families, Juarez said.
“Her enforcement policies have separated families, left children orphaned,” Juarez said. “We’re calling upon Napolitano to keep families united, that’s a very key American value.”
Juarez said advocates will also demand “a pathway to legalization.”
“We’re not just talking about legalization,” Juarez said. “That’s a key element, but we’re also talking about humane time periods, adjusting the backlogs of the U.S. Immigration Department, and worker rights.”
Napolitano is scheduled to speak at 7:30 p.m. at the Mayer Theatre.