La Jornada (Translated by World Meets): Texas is again at the forefront in terms of measures taken against undocumented migrants. This time a federal judge in the state backed a Texas government challenge of executive orders issued by President Obama. The preliminary injunction suspends the orders, which would allow more than five million undocumented immigrants to live and work in the country.
Last week was just the latest ignominious episode restricting the rights of millions of undocumented immigrants in the United States to live as individuals. The person responsible for that misfortune is Federal Judge Andrew Hanen, who has lived in Texas his entire life and was nominated by George W. Bush. Twenty six other states in which 2.3 million undocumented residents live have initiated similar procedures for constraining the provisions of the president. Read more.
The MexicoBlog of the Americas Program, a fiscally sponsored program of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), is written by Laura Carlsen. I monitor and analyze international press on Mexico, with a focus on security, immigration, human rights and social movements for peace and justice, from a feminist perspective. And sometimes I simply muse.
Showing posts with label President Obama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label President Obama. Show all posts
Jan 9, 2015
Democrats Step Up Efforts to Block Obama’s Trade Agenda
ED: This article is important to Mexico as well. As a member of the TPP, Mexico would automatically face the NAFTA-plus or what I have called the NAFTA plus PEMEX scenario of job loss and displacement and massive resource grabs. Obama who ran in 2008 on a platform criticizing NAFTA has become progressives worst enemy on trade issues today. He is now clashing with th Democratic Party over whether to allow the anti-democratic fast track to finish the TPP.
New York Times: President Obama is facing opposition from fellow Democrats to one of his top priorities: winning the power to negotiate international trade agreements and speed them through Congress.
As Mr. Obama’s team works privately to line up support for the so-called trade promotion authority, a coalition of Democratic lawmakers and activists from organized labor, environmental, religious and civil rights groups is stepping up efforts to stop him. Read more.
New York Times: President Obama is facing opposition from fellow Democrats to one of his top priorities: winning the power to negotiate international trade agreements and speed them through Congress.
As Mr. Obama’s team works privately to line up support for the so-called trade promotion authority, a coalition of Democratic lawmakers and activists from organized labor, environmental, religious and civil rights groups is stepping up efforts to stop him. Read more.
Dec 17, 2014
Federal Judge Rules Obama Immigration Measures Unconstitutional
Latin American Herald Tribune: A federal judge in Pennsylvania on Tuesday ruled unconstitutional President Barack Obama’s recent executive action to temporarily protect from deportation more than five million undocumented foreigners, the decision coming as part of a court decision on the case of a Honduran immigrant charged with DUI.
Judge Arthur Schwab, appointed to the bench by former Republican President George W. Bush, justified his ruling on the legality of the presidential decree because the accused in the DUI case, 42-year-old Elionardo Juarez-Escobar, could – in his judgment – benefit from Obama’s executive action. Read more.
Judge Arthur Schwab, appointed to the bench by former Republican President George W. Bush, justified his ruling on the legality of the presidential decree because the accused in the DUI case, 42-year-old Elionardo Juarez-Escobar, could – in his judgment – benefit from Obama’s executive action. Read more.
May 3, 2012
Obama’s Drug Czar Stumps for ‘Third Way’ Policy
ABC News: "To hear President Obama’s drug czar tell it, the leading voices on drug policy are kind of crazy.
“Over the past few years, this public debate on drug policy lurches between two extreme views,” White House Office of National Drug Control Policy Director Gil Kerlikowske said during a speech today at the Center for American Progress.
“On one side we have a very vocal, organized, well-funded advocates who insist that drug legalization is a ‘silver bullet’ for addressing our nation’s drug problem. Then we have the other side. On the other side of the debate are those who insist that a law-enforcement-only, ‘War on Drugs’ approach … is the way to create a drug free society,” Kerlikowske said." read more
“Over the past few years, this public debate on drug policy lurches between two extreme views,” White House Office of National Drug Control Policy Director Gil Kerlikowske said during a speech today at the Center for American Progress.
“On one side we have a very vocal, organized, well-funded advocates who insist that drug legalization is a ‘silver bullet’ for addressing our nation’s drug problem. Then we have the other side. On the other side of the debate are those who insist that a law-enforcement-only, ‘War on Drugs’ approach … is the way to create a drug free society,” Kerlikowske said." read more
Administration offers new alternative to 'drug war' - San Antonio Express-News
San Antonio Express-News: "The Obama administration's top drug policy official said Tuesday that although the government continues anti-drug efforts on the Southwest border, “we cannot arrest our way out of the drug problem.”
National Drug Policy Director Gil Kerlikowske — the drug czar — said it's time to “treat drug addiction as a disease.”
The administration's “third way” strategy seeks a middle ground between drug legalization and an enforcement-heavy “war on drugs,” Kerlikowske said in a speech at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank founded by John Podesta, former White House chief of staff to President Bill Clinton. read more
National Drug Policy Director Gil Kerlikowske — the drug czar — said it's time to “treat drug addiction as a disease.”
The administration's “third way” strategy seeks a middle ground between drug legalization and an enforcement-heavy “war on drugs,” Kerlikowske said in a speech at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank founded by John Podesta, former White House chief of staff to President Bill Clinton. read more
Apr 18, 2012
"New" White House Drug Control Strategy: New Rhetoric, Same Failed Policies
"Huffington Post: "The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (more commonly known as the drug czar's office) released its 2012 National Drug Control Strategy today.
The strategy is nearly identical to previous national drug strategies. While the rhetoric is new -- reflecting the fact that three-quarters of Americans consider the drug war a failure -- the substance of the actual policies is the same. In reality, the administration is prioritizing low-level drug arrests, trampling on state medical marijuana laws, and expanding supply-side interdiction approaches -- while doing nothing to actually reduce the harms of drug addiction and misuse, such as the escalating overdose epidemic." read more
The strategy is nearly identical to previous national drug strategies. While the rhetoric is new -- reflecting the fact that three-quarters of Americans consider the drug war a failure -- the substance of the actual policies is the same. In reality, the administration is prioritizing low-level drug arrests, trampling on state medical marijuana laws, and expanding supply-side interdiction approaches -- while doing nothing to actually reduce the harms of drug addiction and misuse, such as the escalating overdose epidemic." read more
White House Drug Policy Shifts Strategy
Philadelphia Inquirer: "The Obama Administration has chosen the middle ground with its new drug control policy, advocating treatment over tough sentencing.
The approach, unveiled Tuesday, rejects both the harsh "war on drugs" approach, characterized by maximum sentences for drug offenses, and the push to legalize illegal drugs.
Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, said during a news conference Tuesday that both approaches were "not humane or realistic, and not grounded in scientific evidence. read more
The approach, unveiled Tuesday, rejects both the harsh "war on drugs" approach, characterized by maximum sentences for drug offenses, and the push to legalize illegal drugs.
Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, said during a news conference Tuesday that both approaches were "not humane or realistic, and not grounded in scientific evidence. read more
New Strategy in Drug War Focuses on Treatment, Not Punishment
HispanicBusiness.com: The Obama Administration unveiled a new strategy to combat drug abuse focusing on treatment rather than throwing drug abusers in jail.
"This is nothing short of a revolution in how we approach drug control," said Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, who said the new strategy would be guided by the principle that addiction is a treatable disease, that those addicted to drugs could recover and that innovative criminal justice reforms could stop the revolving door of drug use, crime, imprisonment and eventual and inevitable rearrest.
"We are not going to arrest our way out of this problem," he said. read more
"This is nothing short of a revolution in how we approach drug control," said Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, who said the new strategy would be guided by the principle that addiction is a treatable disease, that those addicted to drugs could recover and that innovative criminal justice reforms could stop the revolving door of drug use, crime, imprisonment and eventual and inevitable rearrest.
"We are not going to arrest our way out of this problem," he said. read more
Apr 16, 2012
Despite Obama charm, Americas summit boosts U.S. isolation
Apr 14, 2012
Controversy as Obama attends Summit of the Americas
AFP: "Leaders of the American continent will open a two-day summit here Saturday anxious to expand regional trade, but dogged by controversial issues like contraband of illegal drugs and policy toward Cuba.
President Barack Obama, who arrived here Friday, said during a stopover in Tampa, Florida that he would be thinking about US workers during his talks at the Summit of the Americas.
"I am going to be thinking about how we can get more business, access to more markets and more customers in the region," he said. But "I want us selling stuff and I want to put more Americans back to work." read more
President Barack Obama, who arrived here Friday, said during a stopover in Tampa, Florida that he would be thinking about US workers during his talks at the Summit of the Americas.
"I am going to be thinking about how we can get more business, access to more markets and more customers in the region," he said. But "I want us selling stuff and I want to put more Americans back to work." read more
Apr 11, 2012
Obama Won't Legalize Drugs or Stop the Drug War at Colombia Summit
Poliy Mic: "When President Obama head to Colombia this week for the Summit of the Americas, he will face some difficult and important questions that no president before him has really had to answer.
With the U.S.-led drug war into its fourth decade, the leaders of South and Latin America are demanding change and reform from the largest importer of drugs in the hemisphere and the mightiest enforcer of drug prohibition. Despite the growing influence and voice of our southern neighbors, President Obama lacks the incentives and the principles to stop, or even commit major reforms on, the disastrous drug war. read more
With the U.S.-led drug war into its fourth decade, the leaders of South and Latin America are demanding change and reform from the largest importer of drugs in the hemisphere and the mightiest enforcer of drug prohibition. Despite the growing influence and voice of our southern neighbors, President Obama lacks the incentives and the principles to stop, or even commit major reforms on, the disastrous drug war. read more
Apr 10, 2012
Latin American countries pursue alternatives to U.S. drug war
The Washington Post: "When President Obama arrives in Colombia for a hemispheric summit this weekend, he will hear Latin American leaders say that the U.S.-orchestrated war on drugs, which criminalizes drug use and employs military tactics to fight gangs, is failing and that sweeping changes need to be considered.
Latin American leaders say they have not developed an alternative model to the hard-line approach favored by successive American administrations since Richard Nixon was in office. But the Colombian government says a range of options — from decriminalizing possession of drugs to legalizing marijuana use to regulating markets — will be debated at the Summit of the Americas in the coastal city of Cartagena." read more
Latin American leaders say they have not developed an alternative model to the hard-line approach favored by successive American administrations since Richard Nixon was in office. But the Colombian government says a range of options — from decriminalizing possession of drugs to legalizing marijuana use to regulating markets — will be debated at the Summit of the Americas in the coastal city of Cartagena." read more
Apr 3, 2012
Mexico Asks United States to Ban Assault Weapons to Stem Drug War Violence
Fox News Latino: "U.S. President Barack Obama, Mexico's Felipe Calderón and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Monday concluded a summit that highlighted their commitment to greater cooperation on security and economic advancement in North America.
The meeting, postponed from November 2011, took place at the White House and ran for a little more than three hours focusing on matters such as fighting organized crime, job creation and the competitiveness of and within the region." read more
The meeting, postponed from November 2011, took place at the White House and ran for a little more than three hours focusing on matters such as fighting organized crime, job creation and the competitiveness of and within the region." read more
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