WASHINGTON - Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced her resignation Friday to take over the University of California system, leaving behind a huge department still working to adjust to the merger of nearly two dozen agencies after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

The former Arizona governor came to President Obama's Cabinet with plans to fix the nation's broken immigration system, and she is leaving in the midst of a heated battle in Congress over how - or if - that overhaul will be accomplished.

The most frequent contact by most Americans is with the department's Transportation Security Administration screeners at airports. But its charter is much broader: It comprises agencies that protect the president, respond to disasters and enforce immigration laws as well as secure air travel. It includes the Secret Service, the Coast Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection as well as the TSA.

Like the department Napolitano has run since the beginning of the Obama administration, the University of California system is a giant, multilayered organization, though with a far different mission.

Her appointment, which still must be confirmed by the system's board of regents, could triple Napolitano's salary from $199,700 to around $600,000. She said she would stay on as secretary until early September.

It is not clear whom Obama may be considering to replace her.

Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar isn't being so kind. He slammed the former Arizona governor who resigned Friday to head the University of California.

Gosar issued a statement saying Napolitano's "inaction and incompetence on border security will continue to plague our nation for years to come."

She always gave me the creeps.

Yea, me too. It was kinda like she was a woman but maybe a man. Weird.

Californians are up in arms.... they don't want her!

wonder if the Rumors that her and Michael Moore getting Hitched are true!

I don't even want to visualize it.

yep,just too emotionally painful and disturbing!

They'd have to fight over which one got to be the man in the relationship.

I guess the "Homeland" will be a lot more secure with her out of the picture, as long as Chertoff doesn't come back. The country would bemuch better off if she was replaced with somebody like Ralph Nader. With any luck he might be able to dismantle it & give it a well-deserved burial next to Halliburton, Monsanto, the Fed, the NSA, the CIA & the other crooked dinosaurs quickly going extinct.