âºBarack Obama and Felipé Calderon Discuss Immigration
The recent meeting between Mexico’s President Felipé Calderon and President-elect Barack Obama had immigration issues high on the agenda, the Associated Press reports. Obama and Calderon found that they shared common ground in their approach to organized crime. “We talked about immigration and how we can have a comprehensive and thoughtful strategy that ultimately strengthens both countries,” said Obama. Obama was also quoted as saying that he intends to strengthen and reinforce “the commercial ties, the security ties, and the cultural ties that exist between the United States and Mexico.”
Both men were joined by key members of their respective cabinets. “President-elect Obama underscored his commitment to working with Congress to fix the broken U.S. immigration system and fostering safe, legal and orderly migration. He expressed his strongly held view that immigrants should be treated with dignity and that the immigration debate should not be a vehicle for vilifying any group, and that our two countries need to work more effectively to stop the flow of illegal immigration into the United States,” said Robert Gibbs, a spokesman for Mr. Obama.
âºPresident Bush Calls for Softening of Republican Anti-Immigrant Sentiments
In a statement about the future of the Republican Party, President Bush stated strongly that the Republican Party is in danger of becoming “anti-immigrant”, especially in the wake of the election losses of November 4th. In his interview with Fox News, he apologized for his inability to pass the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill, and challenged his party to act in the defense of immigrants in future. “We should be open-minded,” he said. “…If the party is anti-immigrant, someone might say, “If they’re against the immigrant, they might be against me. We’ve got to be a party for a better future.” Also, in a more recent press conference, he suggested that pushing immigration reform early in his second term might have been a better use of his time and power than the social security reforms he championed instead.
âºImmigration Legal Info
Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey ruled recently that illegal immigrants do not have a constitutional right to “effective legal representation” in deportation hearings, which closes the “ineffective legal counsel” appeal option for potential deportees, as well as serving to speed the deportation process. What this means is that a potential deportee cannot appeal that his or her legal counsel was ineffective after receiving a court deportation order. Immigrants often fall prey to bad legal counsel by poorly trained lawyers who in many cases are working without a license.
Immigration courts do not operate under the judicial branch of the American government, but rather, under the executive branch, making the Attorney General’s ruling the highest authority for immigration courts. The ruling could also affect the review of federal judicial courts because it makes it easier for immigration courts to argue the validity of their rulings. Mr. Mukasey’s ruling is expected to be appealed, and possibly repealed under the new administration, but thousands could be deported in the meantime, said representatives from the ACLU.
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