Department Of Homeland Security Hiring Illegals-Citing ‘Agency Leeway.’

The Department of Homeland Security,  (the head branch of the TSA) and it's leader, Janet Napolitano, has seen fit to hire illegal aliens while the jobless rate hovers above 9 percent.

According to a recent Senate Judiciary Hearing,  Napolitano admitted to Senator Charles Grassley that DHS  uses what is called "prosecutorial discretion" when it comes to hiring people who are illegal aliens.   Napolitano tried to counter Grassley's pressing questions as to why the government branch in charge of border security; in fact, security of the entire population, would hire illegal, undocumented workers.  She cited a statute she claimed had been on the books since 1986 that allowed illegals or other undocumented people to be hired.  While she did not specify the rule, the only one that could fit would be the 1986 Simpson-Mazoli Act, otherwise known as the Immigration Reform And Control Act of 1986.  In a nutshell, it offered such provisions to people who had been here illegally prior to January 1982.  It also contained some limited amnesty for such illegals when it came to certain misdemeanor crimes.  However, that bill only applied to those who were here prior to 1982.   Not to anyone who has since come over the US borders illegally.  Also, the estimated illegal population of the US has grown from over 2 million to at least 12 million--probably more, say experts.  Grassley also pressed Napolitano on the security aspect.  US intelligence officials have arrested individuals who have come across the border masquerading as agricultural workers, when in fact they were drug cartel members, and some even lower level terrorists.    And on top of that, hiring illegals does not provide relief for the thousands who have lost their jobs as the unemployment rate continues to stick just under 10 percent.   While this has been going on almost since the start of Napolitano's tenure as head of the DHS, with the unemployment rate rising, and the amount of money being spent by DHS on hiring and training, it has come under the spotlight again.