Rep. John Carter, R-Round Rock, doesn’t just want Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to resign: "I called for her to be fired."

Carter and a growing chorus of Republican lawmakers, including Rep. Michael Burgess of Lewisville, are complaining about a recent Homeland Security memorandum to law enforcement that warns of homegrown terrorism from conservatives and military veterans.

"The Department of Homeland Security’s controversial report released last week listed, among others, many of our nation’s veterans as possible domestic terrorists or assassins," Burgess said. "I find this astonishingly insensitive."

Carter, Burgess and several other conservative members took to the House floor Wednesday evening to rail against Napolitano, the former Arizona governor, who was sworn in as Homeland Security secretary Jan. 21.

"Singling out political opponents for working against the ruling party is precisely the tactic of every tyrannical government from Red China to Venezuela," Carter said.

The report amounts "to telling police 'keep an eye’ on anyone who is anti-abortion, pro-Second Amendment, distrusting of the federal government" — a description that he said fits most of his district.

Napolitano spokeswoman Sara Kuban said Napolitano has apologized to veterans for the report’s harsh conclusions about people with military training. Kuban said that they were written by career officials and that Napolitano will meet with the American Legion and other veterans groups in the next few days.

But Napolitano is not backing off completely.

"Secretary Napolitano may be new to Washington, but she is not new to politics," Kuban said. "She knows political theater when she sees it."

Napolitano "wakes up every morning committed to work together with Republicans and Democrats to do her job, and that job is defending America, securing our borders, enforcing smart and tough immigration laws, and boosting preparedness for national disasters," Kuban said.

Burgess, however, read several letters on the House floor Wednesday night from constituents who do not see the apology as going far enough.

"One was from a couple who had both served in the Army, and you could feel their pain in the letter," Burgess said. "This is a man and a woman who have honorably served their country, and now they are being equated with someone who would want to harm their country, the same country they spent their lives defending. This is unacceptable."

Burgess, who wrote Napolitano last week, Carter and other members say they will continue their campaign against her.

Military veteran couple John and Ann Miller of Pilot Point in Denton County wrote Burgess an anguished letter emphasizing "how repugnant Ann and I find the justification of discriminatory, governmental directives and complete lack of rational judgment demonstrated by Janet Napolitano."

In an interview, John Miller said his reaction to the Homeland Security memorandum was "appalled, appalled."


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