The former U.S. secretary of homeland security says political calls for more walls and policing at the U.S.-Mexico border is a "straw man" designed to defeat immigration reform.
Janet Napolitano says that money could be better spent improving ports of entry to keep up with the pace of expanding commerce between Mexico and the United States.
Napolitano said Wednesday that "you cannot seal a border" and that security is being used to "prevent immigration reform from passing in the U.S. House of Representatives."
Napolitano left as secretary in September to become president of the University of California system. She was in Mexico to promote educational exchanges between the university and Mexico. She stressed that her comments are her "personal opinion" now that she has left the federal government.
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