Friday, July 30, 2010
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
President Obama has been too busy to address immigration reform
The first eighteen months of the Obama Presidency have come and gone, and the President has yet to address immigration reform. That being said, the President has assured us that he WILL address immigration reform. Not now, but soon. So we should all just be patient. Our time will come. Not now, but soon.
What the President means by "soon" is not in 2010. No, no, not in 2010. There is an election in 2010, and Nancy Pelosi must shield her Democrats from any more controversial votes before the mid-term elections or risk losing the House. As for Harry Reid, he is hanging on by a thread in Nevada, so you can forget about the Senate taking the lead.
No, soon means some time in 2011, or maybe in 2012. Well, not in 2012. There is a big election in 2012, and we all know what happens if you address immigration reform in an election year (see 2010). As for 2011, keep your fingers crossed that the Democrats don't lose the House or you can forget about it.
In fairness, President Obama hasn't had the time to address immigration reform in his first year in office. He has obviously been very busy since getting elected.
Busy deporting more undocumented immigrants than George W. Bush did in any single year in office...
Busy covering up abuses of immigrant detainees...
...and busy raiding businesses that employ United States citizen workers, and also provide jobs to the very people who are patiently waiting for him to make immigration reform a "top priority" (as promised).
I don't know about you but I have had enough of being patient. As an attorney in the trenches of the immigration war I have had enough of having to tell a parent, spouse, or child that their family member is getting deported because of the Obama administration's mandate to deport 400,000 people in Fiscal Year 2010.
I'm tired of having to explain to my clients that the President has turned his back to the Hispanic electorate after he got their votes because their family isn't important enough to be a "top priority" (as he promised).
In most instances the people President Obama has deported must wait 10 years before they will be eligible to return to the United States. Should their United States citizen family members just be patient while their family is destroyed by the deportation of their loved-one? Should a child just be patient while they grow up without their mother or father? Should innocent children who have known no other country but the United States be patient and put their dream of an education on hold while the President decides what "soon" is.
The time for being patient has come and gone like a broken Obama campaign promise.
There is no single campaign promise that President Obama has broken that has more of an impact on the immediate daily lives of Americans, because for every one of the estimated 11 million undocumented aliens in this Country there are countless U.S. citizens who will lose their parent, spouse, or child to deportation.
If people only understood the importance of immigrants to the financial security of the United States they would not be so dismissive of the issue of comprehensive immigration reform, and they would not callously ask for our patience.
Soon is now Mr. President.
We have lost our patience.
What the President means by "soon" is not in 2010. No, no, not in 2010. There is an election in 2010, and Nancy Pelosi must shield her Democrats from any more controversial votes before the mid-term elections or risk losing the House. As for Harry Reid, he is hanging on by a thread in Nevada, so you can forget about the Senate taking the lead.
No, soon means some time in 2011, or maybe in 2012. Well, not in 2012. There is a big election in 2012, and we all know what happens if you address immigration reform in an election year (see 2010). As for 2011, keep your fingers crossed that the Democrats don't lose the House or you can forget about it.
In fairness, President Obama hasn't had the time to address immigration reform in his first year in office. He has obviously been very busy since getting elected.
Busy deporting more undocumented immigrants than George W. Bush did in any single year in office...
Busy covering up abuses of immigrant detainees...
...and busy raiding businesses that employ United States citizen workers, and also provide jobs to the very people who are patiently waiting for him to make immigration reform a "top priority" (as promised).
I don't know about you but I have had enough of being patient. As an attorney in the trenches of the immigration war I have had enough of having to tell a parent, spouse, or child that their family member is getting deported because of the Obama administration's mandate to deport 400,000 people in Fiscal Year 2010.
I'm tired of having to explain to my clients that the President has turned his back to the Hispanic electorate after he got their votes because their family isn't important enough to be a "top priority" (as he promised).
In most instances the people President Obama has deported must wait 10 years before they will be eligible to return to the United States. Should their United States citizen family members just be patient while their family is destroyed by the deportation of their loved-one? Should a child just be patient while they grow up without their mother or father? Should innocent children who have known no other country but the United States be patient and put their dream of an education on hold while the President decides what "soon" is.
The time for being patient has come and gone like a broken Obama campaign promise.
There is no single campaign promise that President Obama has broken that has more of an impact on the immediate daily lives of Americans, because for every one of the estimated 11 million undocumented aliens in this Country there are countless U.S. citizens who will lose their parent, spouse, or child to deportation.
If people only understood the importance of immigrants to the financial security of the United States they would not be so dismissive of the issue of comprehensive immigration reform, and they would not callously ask for our patience.
Soon is now Mr. President.
We have lost our patience.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Monday, July 26, 2010
Who remembers this:
Sounded pretty good huh?
Well, we are 18 months into the Obama Presidency, and all I can say is: "Where's the beef?!?!"
The Washington Post has just reported the following:
"The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency expects to deport about 400,000 people this fiscal year, nearly 10 percent above the Bush administration's 2008 total and 25 percent more than were deported in 2007. The pace of company audits has roughly quadrupled since President George W. Bush's final year in office."
ICE director John Morton issued a June 30 memorandum that instructs that parents caring for children or the infirm should be detained only in unusual cases. Rhetorical question: how is a parent supposed to care for his/her United States citizen child when their job was just taken away from them by the President through a workforce raid.
Didn't this President say that he stood for job CREATION?
If this isn't the WTF moment of 2010 I don't know what is. It is simply incomprehensible to me that President Obama can look an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the eye, and from one side of his mouth tell them that he intends to put an end to the destruction of their families, and then from the other side turn around and pledge to deport more undocumented immigrants than his predecessor. Make that any President in the history of the United States.
Simply astounding.
Plain and simply, I'm tired of being lied to by this President. I would rather he come clean with the fact that his administration has no intention to seriously address comprehensive immigration reform. Not in 2010, not in 2011, not ever. I would at least respect his honesty.
Other than a few brave Representatives (i.e., Congressman Gutierrez, ILL.), the Democrats are petrified of immigration reform with the November elections threatening incumbents. That, coupled with Obama's plummeting approval ratings, has resulted in the death of CIR in 2010. If the Republicans make any significant gains in the House as predicted it is unlikely that we will see immigration reform in Obama's first term.
If this is the case, rather than blaming the GOP for the lack of any meaningful movement on CIR, the President should look to his broken campaign promise to address immigration reform in his first year in office as the real reason for CIR's demise.
Shame on you Mr. President, for insulting our intelligence with your empty promises, half-truths, and record deportations.
Many people have claimed that 2012 will be end the end of the world...
I am predicting that it will be the end of the failed Obama presidency.
Sounded pretty good huh?
Well, we are 18 months into the Obama Presidency, and all I can say is: "Where's the beef?!?!"
The Washington Post has just reported the following:
"The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency expects to deport about 400,000 people this fiscal year, nearly 10 percent above the Bush administration's 2008 total and 25 percent more than were deported in 2007. The pace of company audits has roughly quadrupled since President George W. Bush's final year in office."
ICE director John Morton issued a June 30 memorandum that instructs that parents caring for children or the infirm should be detained only in unusual cases. Rhetorical question: how is a parent supposed to care for his/her United States citizen child when their job was just taken away from them by the President through a workforce raid.
Didn't this President say that he stood for job CREATION?
If this isn't the WTF moment of 2010 I don't know what is. It is simply incomprehensible to me that President Obama can look an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the eye, and from one side of his mouth tell them that he intends to put an end to the destruction of their families, and then from the other side turn around and pledge to deport more undocumented immigrants than his predecessor. Make that any President in the history of the United States.
Simply astounding.
Plain and simply, I'm tired of being lied to by this President. I would rather he come clean with the fact that his administration has no intention to seriously address comprehensive immigration reform. Not in 2010, not in 2011, not ever. I would at least respect his honesty.
Other than a few brave Representatives (i.e., Congressman Gutierrez, ILL.), the Democrats are petrified of immigration reform with the November elections threatening incumbents. That, coupled with Obama's plummeting approval ratings, has resulted in the death of CIR in 2010. If the Republicans make any significant gains in the House as predicted it is unlikely that we will see immigration reform in Obama's first term.
If this is the case, rather than blaming the GOP for the lack of any meaningful movement on CIR, the President should look to his broken campaign promise to address immigration reform in his first year in office as the real reason for CIR's demise.
Shame on you Mr. President, for insulting our intelligence with your empty promises, half-truths, and record deportations.
Many people have claimed that 2012 will be end the end of the world...
I am predicting that it will be the end of the failed Obama presidency.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Monday, July 12, 2010
Judge Andrew Napolitano 'Arizona Law Is Unconstitutional'
Judge Andrew Napolitano discusses the constitutionality of the Arizona Immigration statute. He believes that the law is unconstitutional on two grounds.
The reality of our broken immigration laws: U.S. Citizen's Wife Deported, Family Destroyed
"The undocumented wife of this U.S. citizen was deported as a result of being pulled over for a minor traffic violation. Set in Queen Creek, Arizona, this story provides a window into the impact that new state laws like Arizona's SB 1070 will have on the lives of undocumented residents and citizens alike.
Even tough SB 1070 will become effective on July 29, some law enforcement agencies are already putting it into practice." ~90daystophoenix
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Friday, July 9, 2010
McCain changes views on illegal immigration
"The former GOP presidential candidate once co-sponsored an immigration bill which offered a path to legalization, but now he's changed his mind. An Ed Show panel debates whether McCain's new position is a reflection of his efforts to win reelection in Arizona."
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Board of Immigration Appeals Decision: delivery of a simulated controlled substance in violation of Texas law is not an aggravated felony
The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) has just overturned a May 6, 2008, order of an immigration judge that found an alien deportable under former sections 241(a)(2)(A)(iii), and (B)(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. §§ 1251(a)(2)(A)(iii) and(B)(i) (1994), as an alien convicted of an aggravated felony and a controlled substance violation.
In this specific case the alien is a native and citizen of El Salvador. He entered the United States without inspection on March 28, 1984, and was subsequently convicted on September 4, 1996, in the 185th District Court of Harris County, Texas of delivery by actual transfer of a simulated controlled substance (cocaine).
The BIA ruled that the offense of delivery of a simulated controlled substance in violation of Texas law is not an aggravated felony, as defined by section 101(a)(43)(B) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(43)(B) (2006), but it is a violation of a law relating to a controlled substance under former section 241(a)(2)(B)(i) of the Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1251(a)(2)(B)(i) (1994). See Matter of Fidel Antonio SANCHEZ-CORNEJO, 25 I&N Dec. 273 (BIA 2010)
The BIA reasoning was an alien’s State drug offense qualifies may only constitute an aggravated felony under the “illicit trafficking” clause if it is (1) a felony under the law of the convicting sovereign that (2) involved “unlawful trading or dealing” in (3) a Federally controlled substance.
Therefore, because simulated cocaine is not a Federally controlled substance, the alien's conviction does not constitute an “illicit trafficking” offense, and therefore is not an aggravated felony.
In this specific case the alien is a native and citizen of El Salvador. He entered the United States without inspection on March 28, 1984, and was subsequently convicted on September 4, 1996, in the 185th District Court of Harris County, Texas of delivery by actual transfer of a simulated controlled substance (cocaine).
The BIA ruled that the offense of delivery of a simulated controlled substance in violation of Texas law is not an aggravated felony, as defined by section 101(a)(43)(B) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(43)(B) (2006), but it is a violation of a law relating to a controlled substance under former section 241(a)(2)(B)(i) of the Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1251(a)(2)(B)(i) (1994). See Matter of Fidel Antonio SANCHEZ-CORNEJO, 25 I&N Dec. 273 (BIA 2010)
The BIA reasoning was an alien’s State drug offense qualifies may only constitute an aggravated felony under the “illicit trafficking” clause if it is (1) a felony under the law of the convicting sovereign that (2) involved “unlawful trading or dealing” in (3) a Federally controlled substance.
Therefore, because simulated cocaine is not a Federally controlled substance, the alien's conviction does not constitute an “illicit trafficking” offense, and therefore is not an aggravated felony.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Monday, July 5, 2010
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Saturday, July 3, 2010
OneAmerica Responds to Obama's Immigration Reform Speech
"Pramila Jayapal, the executive director of OneAmerica (a Seattle-based immigration reform advocacy group) talks about President Obama's immigration address.
She outlines requirements for a comprehensive immigration reform bill, expresses disappointment with the lack of progress that has been made, and outlines their advocacy strategy."
Thursday, July 1, 2010
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