Under a new policy, adopted by Homeland Security, many illegals facing deportation will stay in the United States.
Under the new rules announced Thursday, the department will conduct case-by-case reviews to identify high-priority deportation cases, such as those involving violent criminals, fugitives and repeat violators of immigration laws, and will close the books on low-priority cases.
“The word ‘amnesty’ is thrown around very inaccurately,” Napolitano told reporters Monday evening, after giving a talk at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock. “Amnesty means you’re getting a free pass, and nobody’s getting a free pass. Nobody is getting free admission to citizenship or anything like that under this system. Nobody’s being exempted.”

She said the new rules are “very commonsense” and are meant to help Homeland Security officials determine which cases should get top priority, “just like any prosecution office has priorities.”
“To actually apprehend and deport somebody from the country is a very resource-intensive process, and we’re going to put our resources where they’re going to have the most benefit,” she said.
Napolitano said Homeland Security is working to increase information gathering and sharing in order to minimize the risk of new terrorist attacks.

Over the past two and a half years, the department has established 72 “fusion centers” across the country, including one at Arkansas State Police headquarters in Little Rock, where information can be shared between all levels of government, she said.

Homeland Security also is expanding a program begun in New York that encourages the public to report suspicious activity, she said. The program is called, “If you see something, say something.”

“We are building our homeland security by building our hometown security, and we do it one hometown at a time,” she said.

With the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks less than a month away, Napolitano said the department is mindful of the possibility of new attacks on that date, but at this time “we have no specific or credible intelligence about an attack on 9-11.”

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