|
|
Some Democrats See Drugs and Border Security As ‘Distraction’ to Comprehensive Immigration Reform
Some congressional Democrats say concern about drug traffickers crossing the U.S.-Mexico border are distracting attention from the main issue of comprehensive immigration reform.
Washington (CNSNews.com) – Some congressional Democrats say concern about drug traffickers crossing the U.S.-Mexico border are distracting attention from the main issue of comprehensive immigration reform.
At a Capitol Hill press conference on Wednesday, several House Democrats blasted the new Arizona law that makes it a crime to be in the state illegally. They said the law – which mirrors federal statutes -- highlights the need for comprehensive immigration reform.
“The drug war that we have is another distraction from doing what we have to do right. If we do this right, we can move forward on the other issues,” Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.), chairman of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, told CNSNews.com.
“Sealing the border is not the entire issue,” Honda said, noting that many immigrants – including 1.5 million from Asia -- do not cross the U.S.-Mexico border. “Let’s just stay focused on the issue” – comprehensive reform, which he indicated would benefit all immigrants.
In a message on his Web site, Honda called Arizona's “anti-immigrant sentiment” anti-American as well as financially counter-productive: He pointed to a 2010 study showing that comprehensive immigration reform would add more than a trillion dollars to U.S. gross domestic product over the next ten years.
Arizona’s new law allows police to investigate the immigration status of people who are stopped for a separate reason, if police suspect the person is in the country illegally.
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) on Wednesday called the law “un-American.” “Requiring people to carry papers to prove they are staying here legally harkens back to the Jim Crow days or apartheid in South Africa,” Lee said.
President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder both have criticized the Arizona law and they have said the federal government will review it.
Border security
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has considered introducing a comprehensive immigration reform bill that would establish what proponents call a “pathway to citizenship” for some 12 million illegal aliens. Opponents of the legislation call it “amnesty.”
However, the best hope for a bipartisan bill was Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who now says he will oppose the effort. Graham withdrew his support on Tuesday, pointing to drug violence along the border with Mexico.
Border security is the main concern of many Republicans. Seventeen of them, mostly from border states, signed a letter to President Barack Obama this week, asking him to use National Guard troops to secure the border.
“We urge the administration to take action to address this growing national security threat on our southern border,” said the letter from House GOP members. “Without swift and decisive action, it is our fear that this violence will only increase in severity and scope. We urge you to deploy the National Guard to the U.S.-Mexico border, as has been requested by a number of border state governors and members of Congress. We ask that any National Guard troops that are deployed should be provided with very clear guidance of proper rules of engagement and should be armed and allowed to defend themselves if fired upon or attacked.”
Since January 2008, there have been almost 5,000 murders in Juarez, Mexico, including 79 U.S. citizens killed in 2009 alone, Republicans noted in their letter.
And the violence is spilling across the border. Just last month, an Arizona rancher was shot and killed on his own property, apparently by an illegal alien he encountered there.
Further, according to the Republicans’ letter, assaults against Border Patrol agents increased 46 percent to 1,097 incidents in 2008 from 752 in 2007.
“Border patrol and local law enforcement on the border are out-manned, out-gunned, and out-financed,” Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas), one of the signers of the letter, said in a written statement. “Texas Governor Rick Perry has been asking for National Guard troops for over a year, but Washington continues to ignore these requests. This is not a partisan or political issue, this is a national security issue. I urge the administration to take immediate action on this request and secure the border.”
Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-N.Y.), chairwoman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, told CNSNews.com that border security would be part of any comprehensive legislation, and she blamed Republicans for failing to achieve it.
“Throughout the last eight years of Republican control and Republican administration, there was nice talk about being tough on criminals, being tough on the border. But where is the beef? They didn’t put the money or the resources into it, so this is what we got,” she said. “Border security is an issue that must be a part of comprehensive immigration reform.”
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) said there’s nothing to prevent security the border right now, with enhanced security, technology and federal agents. But border security is only part of the equation, she said: It does not “doing the right thing as it relates to human beings and family reunification.”
Lee said comprehensive immigration reform would provide “some reasonable way for legal entry into this country” while preventing “thugs and those who would harm us with drug cartels” from entering.
“It always is the time to do what is right, as happened in the 1960s,” Lee said.
Other Democrats declined to discuss drugs or border security.
Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) spoke at the press conference, but declined to answer a question from CNSNews.com on whether the United States’ failure to secure the border is partly responsible for the drug war in northern Mexico.
“Got to go, sorry,” Menendez said.
Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), who has advocated a boycott against his own state over the new immigration law, told a CNSNews.com reporter who asked about drugs and border security it was a “punkish” question.
The Justice Department’s National Drug Threat Assessment for 2010 says drugs smuggled into the United States by Mexican drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) usually are transported in private or commercial vehicles, but those DTOs also use cross-border tunnels, subterranean passageways, and low-flying small aircraft to move drugs from Mexico into the United States.
The Justice Department’s drug threat assessment also notes that marijuana production has increased in Mexico, “resulting in increased flow of the drug across the Southwest Border, including through the Tohono O’odham Reservation in Arizona.”
The report also says Mexican drug trafficking organizations “acquire thousands of weapons each year in Arizona, California, and Texas and smuggle them across the border to Mexico.”
Soldiers escort alleged drug trafficker Jose Gerardo Alvarez-Vasquez, known as
At a Capitol Hill press conference on Wednesday, several House Democrats blasted the new Arizona law that makes it a crime to be in the state illegally. They said the law – which mirrors federal statutes -- highlights the need for comprehensive immigration reform.
“The drug war that we have is another distraction from doing what we have to do right. If we do this right, we can move forward on the other issues,” Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.), chairman of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, told CNSNews.com.
“Sealing the border is not the entire issue,” Honda said, noting that many immigrants – including 1.5 million from Asia -- do not cross the U.S.-Mexico border. “Let’s just stay focused on the issue” – comprehensive reform, which he indicated would benefit all immigrants.
In a message on his Web site, Honda called Arizona's “anti-immigrant sentiment” anti-American as well as financially counter-productive: He pointed to a 2010 study showing that comprehensive immigration reform would add more than a trillion dollars to U.S. gross domestic product over the next ten years.
Arizona’s new law allows police to investigate the immigration status of people who are stopped for a separate reason, if police suspect the person is in the country illegally.
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) on Wednesday called the law “un-American.” “Requiring people to carry papers to prove they are staying here legally harkens back to the Jim Crow days or apartheid in South Africa,” Lee said.
President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder both have criticized the Arizona law and they have said the federal government will review it.
Border security
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has considered introducing a comprehensive immigration reform bill that would establish what proponents call a “pathway to citizenship” for some 12 million illegal aliens. Opponents of the legislation call it “amnesty.”
This video image provided by Senate Television shows Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. speaking on the floor of the Senate on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2009. (AP Photo/Senate Television)
Border security is the main concern of many Republicans. Seventeen of them, mostly from border states, signed a letter to President Barack Obama this week, asking him to use National Guard troops to secure the border.
“We urge the administration to take action to address this growing national security threat on our southern border,” said the letter from House GOP members. “Without swift and decisive action, it is our fear that this violence will only increase in severity and scope. We urge you to deploy the National Guard to the U.S.-Mexico border, as has been requested by a number of border state governors and members of Congress. We ask that any National Guard troops that are deployed should be provided with very clear guidance of proper rules of engagement and should be armed and allowed to defend themselves if fired upon or attacked.”
Since January 2008, there have been almost 5,000 murders in Juarez, Mexico, including 79 U.S. citizens killed in 2009 alone, Republicans noted in their letter.
And the violence is spilling across the border. Just last month, an Arizona rancher was shot and killed on his own property, apparently by an illegal alien he encountered there.
Further, according to the Republicans’ letter, assaults against Border Patrol agents increased 46 percent to 1,097 incidents in 2008 from 752 in 2007.
“Border patrol and local law enforcement on the border are out-manned, out-gunned, and out-financed,” Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas), one of the signers of the letter, said in a written statement. “Texas Governor Rick Perry has been asking for National Guard troops for over a year, but Washington continues to ignore these requests. This is not a partisan or political issue, this is a national security issue. I urge the administration to take immediate action on this request and secure the border.”
Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-N.Y.), chairwoman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, told CNSNews.com that border security would be part of any comprehensive legislation, and she blamed Republicans for failing to achieve it.
“Throughout the last eight years of Republican control and Republican administration, there was nice talk about being tough on criminals, being tough on the border. But where is the beef? They didn’t put the money or the resources into it, so this is what we got,” she said. “Border security is an issue that must be a part of comprehensive immigration reform.”
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) said there’s nothing to prevent security the border right now, with enhanced security, technology and federal agents. But border security is only part of the equation, she said: It does not “doing the right thing as it relates to human beings and family reunification.”
Lee said comprehensive immigration reform would provide “some reasonable way for legal entry into this country” while preventing “thugs and those who would harm us with drug cartels” from entering.
“It always is the time to do what is right, as happened in the 1960s,” Lee said.
Other Democrats declined to discuss drugs or border security.
Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) spoke at the press conference, but declined to answer a question from CNSNews.com on whether the United States’ failure to secure the border is partly responsible for the drug war in northern Mexico.
“Got to go, sorry,” Menendez said.
Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), who has advocated a boycott against his own state over the new immigration law, told a CNSNews.com reporter who asked about drugs and border security it was a “punkish” question.
The Justice Department’s National Drug Threat Assessment for 2010 says drugs smuggled into the United States by Mexican drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) usually are transported in private or commercial vehicles, but those DTOs also use cross-border tunnels, subterranean passageways, and low-flying small aircraft to move drugs from Mexico into the United States.
The Justice Department’s drug threat assessment also notes that marijuana production has increased in Mexico, “resulting in increased flow of the drug across the Southwest Border, including through the Tohono O’odham Reservation in Arizona.”
The report also says Mexican drug trafficking organizations “acquire thousands of weapons each year in Arizona, California, and Texas and smuggle them across the border to Mexico.”
