Janet Napolitano

Napolitano speaks during the second day of the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado.

In 2002, Napolitano narrowly won the gubernatorial election with 46 percent of the vote, succeeding Republican Jane Dee Hull and defeating her Republican opponent, former congressman Matt Salmon, who received 45 percent of the vote. She was Arizona's third female governor and the first female elected governor in the United States to succeed another elected female governor.[21] She was also the first Democrat popularly elected to the governorship since Bruce Babbitt left office in 1987, and the first female governor of Arizona to be elected outright.

She spoke at the 2004 Democratic Convention,[22] where some initially considered her to be a possible running mate for presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election. Kerry selected Senator John Edwards instead. In November 2005, Time magazine named her one of the five best governors in the U.S.[23]

As Governor, Napolitano set records for total number of vetoes issued. In 2005, she set a single-session record of 58 vetoes, breaking Jane Dee Hull's 2001 record of 28.[24][25] This was followed in June 2006, less than four years into her term, when she issued her 115th veto and set the all-time record for vetoes by an Arizona governor. The previous record of 114 vetoes was set by Bruce Babbitt during his nine years in office.[25][26] By the time she left office, Napolitano had issued 180 vetoes.[27]

Napolitano supported many educational initiatives. She successfully negotiated the creation of voluntary full-day kindergarten in Arizona. The state previously only funded half-day programs.[28] She created a literacy program, and acquired funding for an increase in teacher salaries.[29] She spearheaded significant investments in higher education, including funding a Phoenix campus for the University of Arizona College of Medicine.[30]

She also built the state's rainy day fund to more than $650 million, at the time the highest ever.[31] She played a leading role in the successful bid to host Super Bowl XLII in Glendale, Arizona, expanded the number of teams in the Cactus league and invested heavily in tourism and economic development initiatives.[32] She was one of the first governors to call for the National Guard at the border after declaring a state emergency related to border security.[33]

In November 2006, Napolitano was re-elected as governor, defeating the Republican challenger, Len Munsil, by a nearly 2:1 ratio. She was the first woman to be re-elected to that office and the first gubernatorial candidate in state history to win every county and every legislative district in Arizona. Arizona's constitution limits its governors to two consecutive terms,[34] so Napolitano would not have been eligible to seek a third term in office in 2010.

In January 2006, Napolitano won the Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service. She served as a member of the Democratic Governors Association Executive Committee. She has also served previously as chair of the Western Governors Association, and the National Governors Association. She served as NGA chair from 2006 to 2007,[13] and was the first female governor and first governor of Arizona to serve in that position.

Napolitano announcing a border security task force.

In February 2006, Napolitano was named by The White House Project as one of "8 in '08", a group of eight female politicians who were suggested as possible candidates for president in 2008.[35] On January 11, 2008, she endorsed then Illinois Senator Barack Obama as the Democratic nominee for president.[36] On November 5, 2008, she was named to the advisory board of the Obama-Biden Transition Project.[37]

On December 1, 2008, Barack Obama introduced Napolitano as his nominee for United States Secretary of Homeland Security.[38][39] On January 20, 2009, Napolitano was confirmed, becoming the first woman appointed as Secretary in the relatively new department, and the fourth person to hold the position overall (including one acting secretary). Arizona Secretary of State Jan Brewer became governor of Arizona.

Napolitano discussing security at a Super Bowl XLIV press conference. The Super Bowl is designated as a National Special Security Event by Homeland Security.

In March 2009, Napolitano told the German news site Der Spiegel that while there is always a threat from terrorism, she preferred to talk about "man-caused' disasters" as a way "to move away from the politics of fear toward a policy of being prepared for all risks that can occur."[40]

In April 2009, in an interview defending her plans to tighten the Canada–US border, Napolitano incorrectly implied that the September 11 attack perpetrators entered the United States from Canada. This claim was made by several politicians based upon erroneous news reports in the days after the attack. Napolitano explained that she misunderstood the question and was referring to other individuals who had planned attacks and entered through Canada, but Canadian diplomats rebuked her for helping perpetuate a myth.[41]

In response to criticism, she later said that while she knew no 9/11 terrorists entered the U.S. through Canada, "there are other instances … when suspected terrorists have attempted to enter our country from Canada to the United States... [s]ome of these are well known to the public, such as the millennium bomber, while others are not due to security reasons." There has only been one publicly reported case of terrorists coming to the United States through Canada, that of Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian citizen who was in Canada illegally and who had planned an attack on Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) as part of the 2000 millennium attack plots. Nevertheless, Napolitano later claimed that "Canada allows people into its country that we do not allow into ours" as a justification for treating the Mexican and Canadian borders equally.[42]

As Secretary, Napolitano was a central leader in the federal response to the 2009 flu pandemic.[43]  Rather than closing schools and businesses, which would have led to wide-scale disruption, Napolitano advanced a strategy of proactive education for prevention. This included a basic virus-prevention education program.[44] Ultimately, as a result of the programs implemented by Napolitano and others, much of the damage expected from this flu was mitigated.[45]

Napolitano was the subject of controversy after the release of a Department of Homeland Security threat assessment report that was seen as derogatory towards armed forces veterans. The report focused on potential threats from the radical right.[46] Rightwing [sic] Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment[47] was made public in April 2009. The report suggested several factors, including the election of the first black or mixed race president in Barack Obama, concerns regarding future gun control measures, illegal immigration, the economic downturn beginning in 2008, abortion controversy, and disgruntled military veterans' possible vulnerability to recruitment efforts by extremist groups as potential risk factors regarding right-wing extremism recruitment.[48]

Napolitano made multiple apologies for offending veterans groups by the reference to veterans in the assessment, and promised to meet with those groups to discuss the issue.[47] The Department of Homeland Security admitted a "breakdown in an internal process" by ignoring objections by the Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties to a portion of the document.[49]

While the American Legion reportedly criticized the assessment, Glen M. Gardner Jr., the national commander of the 2.2 million-member Veterans of Foreign Wars, generally defended it, saying it "should have been worded differently" but served a vital purpose. "A government that does not assess internal and external security threats would be negligent of a critical public responsibility", he said in a statement.[46]

Napolitano was criticized[50] for stating in an interview with CNN's Candy Crowley that "the system worked" with regard to an attempted terrorist attack on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 approaching Detroit on Christmas Day 2009. She said:

What we are focused on is making sure that the air environment remains safe, that people are confident when they travel. And one thing I'd like to point out is that the system worked. Everybody played an important role here. The passengers and crew of the flight took appropriate action. Within literally an hour to 90 minutes of the incident occurring, all 128 flights in the air had been notified to take some special measures in light of what had occurred on the Northwest Airlines flight. We instituted new measures on the ground and at screening areas, both here in the United States and in Europe, where this flight originated. So the whole process of making sure that we respond properly, correctly and effectively went very smoothly.[51]

She later went on NBC's Today Show with host Matt Lauer and admitted that the security system had indeed failed.[52] She said that her earlier statement was "taken out of context" and maintained "air travel is safe", but admitted, "our system did not work in this instance" and no one "is happy or satisfied with that".[52] Lauer then asked her whether the system failed up until the moment the bomber had tried to blow up the plane, and Napolitano answered, "It did [fail]."[52]

In response to the NW253 bomb attempt, Napolitano instituted emergency enhanced pat-down screening until airport security technology could be deployed that could detect non-metallic explosives. After full body scanners were deployed, the enhanced pat-downs were used selectively on passengers who triggered an alarm when passing through the detection equipment.[53]

To reduce the time consumed by airport security checks Napolitano created the popular program TSA Pre Check, which allows travelers to provide background information about themselves to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) in return for expedited security screening.[54] TSA Pre-Check reduces the number of unknown passengers arriving at security screening lines in airports. She also expanded the U.S. Customs and Border Protection trusted traveler program, Global Entry, to include more American travelers and some from verified partners abroad.[55]

Secure Communities, or SComm, is a deportation program managed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a subdivision of Homeland Security. Napolitano came under scrutiny for contradicting herself about whether the program is voluntary or mandatory for local jurisdictions. On September 7, 2010, Napolitano said in a letter to Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren that jurisdictions that wished to withdraw from the program could do so. However, in October 2010 a Washington Post article quoted an anonymous senior ICE official saying: "Secure Communities is not based on state or local cooperation in federal law enforcement ... State and local law enforcement agencies are going to continue to fingerprint people and those fingerprints are forwarded to FBI for criminal checks. ICE will take immigration action appropriately."[56]

Napolitano later modified her position: "What my letter said was that we would work with them on the implementation in terms of timing and the like ... But we do not view this as an opt-in, opt-out program."[57] At the same time Arlington, Virginia passed a resolution to opt out of SComm.[58] A DHS employee commented at a policy conference: "Have we created some of the confusion out there? Absolutely we have."[59]

Under Napolitano's leadership, the DHS invested heavily in border security and border security technology.[60] These investments included a border security supplement passed by Congress to fund an increase in technology and infrastructure along the southern border with Mexico. This technology was used to replace Boeing's SBI Net,[61] which was widely criticized as expensive and dysfunctional.[62]

After the 2010 transatlantic aircraft bomb plot, which used printer cartridges to conceal bombs, Napolitano issued a ban for toner and ink cartridges weighing more than one pound on passenger flights.[63]

On December 6, 2010, Walmart announced it was partnering with the DHS.[64] The partnership included a video message from Napolitano on TV screens in Walmart stores playing a "public service announcement" to ask customers to report suspicious activity to a Walmart manager. Napolitano compared the undertaking to "the Cold War fight against communists."[65]

Napolitano stands next to Mark Kelly, husband of shooting survivor Gabby Giffords, at the memorial event.

On January 12, 2011, together with President Barack Obama, Napolitano was one of the speakers selected to express sympathy to the community of Tucson, the State of Arizona, and the rest of the nation in a televised memorial for the 2011 Tucson shooting.[66]

In July 2012, Napolitano was accused of allowing discrimination against male staffers within the Department of Homeland Security.[67][68] The federal discrimination lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, was filed by James Hayes Jr., at the time a special agent of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in New York City.[69] The suit alleged that managers Dora Schriro and Suzanne Barr mistreated male staffers, and that promotions were given to women who were friends of Napolitano. The suit also claimed that when the abuse was reported to the Equal Employment Opportunity office Napolitano launched a series of misconduct investigations against the reporting party, Hayes.[70] This allegation was never proven. The spokesperson for ICE declined to comment on "unfounded claims".[71]

Suzanne Barr, who was one of Napolitano's first appointments after she became secretary in 2009, went on leave after Hayes filed his lawsuit and resigned on September 1, 2012. She called the allegations in the lawsuit "unfounded."[72] In November 2012, Hayes' attorney said that the "parties have come to an agreement in principle" to settle the case for $175,000 plus a settlement that would include other conditions, including Hayes keeping his job.[73]

Napolitano was also sued by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who claims he was pulled from his post at JFK Airport after making a series of employment-discrimination complaints.[74]

Janet Napolitano visit to New Zealand in 2012

Napolitano was a long-term advocate for comprehensive immigration reform, starting with her terms as governor of Arizona.[75] In 2012, in an effort to provide relief for the so-called DREAM Act population, or DREAMers, Napolitano used prosecutorial discretion to create the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA).[76] DREAMers were brought to the U.S. by their parents as minors and have no experience of living in their countries of citizenship.[77] The program deferred removal proceedings against DREAMers, providing them with the legal status to remain in the United States without fear of deportation.

DACA was announced by President Obama in a Rose Garden ceremony shortly after its creation. It was criticized by some members of Congress as an abuse of executive authority.[78]  Napolitano's successor, Jeh Johnson, later attempted to expand the program to include parents of DREAMers, but that expansion was subsequently overturned in courts.[79] As of 2019 DACA remains in place and has never been found unconstitutional by a U.S. court.[80]

In July 2013, Napolitano announced she would leave her post as Secretary of Homeland Security to become president of the University of California (UC).[81][82] She was appointed the 20th president by the University of California Board of Regents on July 18, 2013, the first woman to lead the University of California,[83] and began her tenure as president on September 30, 2013.[84] On September 18, 2019, Napolitano announced her resignation as president, effective August 1, 2020.

Among her first acts as president was the allocation of more support for UC's undocumented students, and expanded efforts to diversify the ranks of UC graduate students and post-doctoral researchers.[85] She also initiated an ambitious ongoing plan for the ten-campus system to achieve carbon neutrality by 2025, saying that it was a 'moral imperative' for UC to find solutions to global climate change. In seeking to reduce UC's carbon footprint to zero, Napolitano authorized the university to register as an Electric Service Provider, allowing it to supply energy directly to some of its campuses and medical centers from an 80-MW solar farm in Fresno.[86] In 2017, Napolitano was awarded the Pat Brown Award from the California Council for Environmental and Economic Balance for her environmental leadership.[87]

Napolitano has used her tenure as president to encourage more students to pursue public interest careers. She created a fund for fellowships for undergraduate students to offset costs related to public service internships in Sacramento and Washington D.C. She also created the President's Public Service Law Fellowship program, which awards $4.5 million annually to law students at UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Irvine and UCLA to make postgraduate work and summer positions more accessible for students who wish to pursue public interest legal careers but might be forced to seek private sector jobs out of financial need.[88]

As part of her Global Food Initiative, which was launched in 2014, Napolitano committed $3.3 million to help students at the University of California access nutritious food. At the time it was the nation's most comprehensive, systematic plan to tackle the problem of food insecurity.[89]

Napolitano led efforts to combat sexual violence and harassment at the University of California through improvements to the system's policies and procedures. On March 7, 2014 Napolitano wrote a letter to the UC community announcing a new presidential policy prohibiting sexual harassment and violence and providing support for victims and training for faculty, staff and students.[90] She also created a system-wide Title IX office and appointed the first system-wide Title IX coordinator in January 2017.[91]

On October 26, 2017 the University of California announced the establishment of the National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement. Chaired by Napolitano, the center is devoted to research, education and advocacy on issues of free speech and civic engagement.[92]

During Napolitano's time as president of UC, tuition for undergraduates has held steady, with one tuition increase of $282 in 2017.[93]

Napolitano campaigning for Hillary Clinton in Phoenix, Arizona on October 30, 2016.

In April 2016, Napolitano placed Linda Katehi, the chancellor of the University of California, Davis, on administrative leave following revelations that UC Davis attempted to suppress web searches relating to the UC Davis pepper spray incident, as well as charges of nepotism and allegation of misuse of student funds.[94]

On April 25, 2017 the California State Auditor issued a report that Janet Napolitano and her University of California Office of the President failed to disclose $175 million and engaged in misleading budget practices.[95] After an investigation, the University of California took disciplinary action against Napolitano, issuing a public admonishment.[96] According to an independent report by retired State Supreme Justice Carlos R. Moreno, Napolitano approved a plan that pressured the ten UC campuses to change their survey responses about Napolitano's administration from negative responses to positive ones.[96][97][98]

On September 8, 2017 the University of California and Janet Napolitano filed a lawsuit against the United States Federal Government in response to President Donald Trump's decision to ultimately end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or DACA,[99] making her the first former secretary of homeland security to sue the agency she once led over a policy that she created.[100]

In 2020, Janet Napolitano fired 82 University of California, Santa Cruz graduate students for withholding grades in a wildcat strike for a Cost of Living Adjustment to address living conditions.[101] Dismissed students faced loss of tuition remission, health benefits, and living stipends and international students faced loss of student visa status.

Napolitano was repeatedly discussed as a contender for appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court.[102][103][104][7] Some political commentators also suggested a possible candidacy in the 2016 United States presidential election.[8][6] In September 2014, when Attorney General Eric Holder announced his intention to step down, there was speculation that Napolitano might be a candidate for the next United States attorney general.[105] Instead, Loretta Lynch replaced Holder.[106]

Napolitano serves as an advisor on the COVID-19 Technology Task Force, a technology industry coalition founded in March 2020 collaborating on solutions to respond to and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.[107]

Napolitano became a UC Berkeley faculty member within the Goldman School of Public Policy in 2015.[108]

In May 2022, Napolitano was appointed to serve as a member of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board.[109]