Underlining Peter K.’s point that firing Ja-No would be purely symbolic: Until just a few years ago, DHS wasn’t just letting people on the terrorist watch list board planes, it was giving them green cards. (And who’d they fire when that was revealed? The whistleblower, of course.) And remember, the State Department also dropped the ball by not revoking the boxer-shorts bomber’s visa.
There’s obviously a certain emotional appeal in getting rid of Ja-No, who’s a political hack in over her head. But until the State Department starts turning down visa applications from single, unattached third-world young men (the profile of both a visa-overstayer and a terrorist) and until airport screeners and inspectors can focus extra scrutiny on single, unattached third-world young men named Abdul, we’re not going to see much change. In fact, firing Napolitano could help the White House dodge its own responsibility for our porous borders.