Originally posted at ImmPolitic Blog.

On November 13, we wrote about the speech DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano delivered earlier that day at the Center for American Progress, where she laid out the Administration’s position on comprehensive immigration reform. In that speech, Secretary Napolitano reviewed the accomplishment of DHS in addressing the concerns of some of the Members of Congress who, in 2007, opposed immigration reform because they felt the government could not sufficiently control the border or enforce the laws in the interior. Many of those concerns have been addressed, as she detailed in her speech.

Over the weekend, President Obama’s Senior Advisor, David Axelrod, appeared on CNN’s State of the Union, reiterated this message. “We have to have better security at our borders and we are developing that,” he said. He noted that, at present, “good work is being done on both sides of the aisle” to craft comprehensive immigration reform legislation that could create a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

As the time approaches for the introduction of legislation to reform our immigration system, we look forward to more efforts by the administration to remind Members of Congress that 2009 is not 2007. DHS has seriously focused on the concerns of those who wanted to see more enforcement, but going forward, as Secretary Napolitano said on Friday, DHS will need immigration reform to do its job as effectively as possible.