Posted on 07/21/2010 7:04:47 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
In a mid-May White House visit, Mexican President Felipe Calderon pressed the immigration issue in a way that reflected its importance back home, clearly making official Washington uncomfortable with his demands for reform.
"For us, migration is not only your problem," he told the US Congress. "We also consider it to be our problem."
Many banners and posters - often in Spanish - have been waved for months in Washington and other US cities in rallies urging politicians to fix the country's broken immigration system.
An unprecedented state immigration enforcement law passed in April in Arizona only raised tempers on both sides of the issue and brought condemnation from Latin America.
The law requires police to request immigration papers during traffic stops and other routine interactions, if they suspect someone may be in the country illegally. Supporters insist the law is intended to be race neutral, but critics say the law will inevitably lead to racial profiling against Latinos in a state on the Mexican border.
After months of protests organized around the country, the administration of President Barack Obama filed a lawsuit challenging the Arizona law.
The Justice Department filed the lawsuit on July 6 in a district court in Phoenix, arguing that Arizona had infringed on the US constitution, which gives the federal government power over immigration policy.
Mexico, Ecuador and Argentina have joined one of the lawsuits against the Arizona measure.
Arizona politicians argue that years of federal inaction forced them to adopt the law in the first place. Rising fears of violence along the border from Mexican drug traffickers and people-smuggling rings have fueled the issue in the state.
The Arizona law is set to take effect at the end of July.
In some Latin American countries, US immigration policy is a domestic political issue, creating pressure on national politicians who elevate it to a diplomatic issue with Washington.
The United States is commonly estimated to have about 11 million residents who lack the documents to remain legally. Most are Latino, predominantly from Mexico, though several other countries across Central and South America and the Caribbean have significant populations in the United States.
In late May, Michelle Obama was speaking with a group of children at a school outside Washington when Daisy Cuevas spoke up. "My mom says that Barack Obama is taking away everybody that doesn't have papers," the 7-year-old said.
Scrambling to improvise a delicate answer with news cameras rolling, the first lady replied: "That's something that we have to work on, right? To make sure that people can be here with the right kind of papers, right? That's exactly right."
"But my mom doesn't have any," Daisy replied.
The US-born girl's mother was reported to be a Peruvian overstayer. US immigration authorities have not pursued the family.
Just days later, Peruvian President Alan Garcia held previously scheduled talks at the White House with Obama, indirectly endorsing the US president's still vague reform plans and asking the US Congress "to support this idea."
But immigration reform at the federal level does not appear likely to succeed at least in the short term, with mid-term elections looming in the US House of Representatives and Senate.
"Ahead of the November elections ... there is no way that it's going to be discussed, because for both parties it is an issue which can cause political problems," Honduran Congress Speaker Juan Orlando Hernandez said after a visit this spring to Washington, including meetings on Capitol Hill.
Hernandez said that legislators acknowledged "that this is an issue that needs to be solved. The problem is when to solve it."
how do they want to fix it??
how do they want to fix it??
LOL - Could Be, in the context of today.
;)
Back in the day we had a few presidents who knew that their job was to put the interests of America and Americans first. They would have told Mexico’s president, and any other foreign government official, to BUTT OUT of America’s business.
But George Bush stood meekly alongside of Mexican President Vicente Fox as he lectured Americans on how we should change our laws and our attitudes to facilitate illegal immigration from Mexico.
Now we have another White House Resident more concerned with the well being of illegals than the will and the interests of the American people.
Will we ever have another president who puts America first?
Will it take a female conservative in the White House to do the job the lily livered one-worlders in Washington won’t do?
Well, FYI, Latin America, you don't own us yet. We still control the majority of our territory, so for now, you don't get a vote.
Yep. Back in the day.
WHO the freak let MEXICO and ECUADOR join a lawsuit concerning the domestic policies regarding immigration of the United States of America?! Why don’t we just have China have a seat in the Congress rgarding our fiscal policies? What the hell, just throw the borders open and give every other nation a say in our policies so that we never do anything to harm THEIR national interests, we’ve had it too good for too long,we need to let them come suck like parasites off the healthy blood of this nation so they can infect the last nation standing with all their third world disease and disorder-then they’ll have killed the host and we can all just let the termites have the planet.
I demand you go jump off a bridge Latin America. Demands? Bite me!
There, I fixed it.
Shut up “latin” america. Yopu corrupt losers need to get a life. Fix your worthless, loser countries. Maybe there is a reason for people wanting to immi8grate OUT of your countries????? There is...they suck!
Madness begets more madness.
Scroom!
Scroom!
What would that do? Oxycontin stimulates bonding, you mean?
Or would that just lead to a MASSIVE population explosion as the women start mating with every man within a 30-foot radius after taking the pills?
Cheers!
Let me lay it on the line here: I own a home in Latin America and live here six months a year. And the truth is if the governments down here would clean up their own filthy countries and encourage free enterprise, their people wouldn’t feel it was necessary to scurry across the US border.
Of course, once the Marxist Obama gets done destroying free enterprise in America, a lot of the illegals my end up scurrying back down here!
LOL! When I read that, I had the same response as you except yours is a bit nicer.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.