Court ruling on immigration could upset Administration policy. What do you think about the issue being decided?

2015-05-20T03:38:11-04:00

Thanks to a little-watched court case in California, the Obama administration’s immigration policy faces a shake-up next week—and the court’s ruling could reverberate in the 2016 presidential campaign.

At issue is whether it’s legal to essentially lock up women and children who’ve crossed the border illegally, part of the administration’s response to last summer’s unaccompanied minors crisis. Lawyers for some of these families sued the government, and last month, a U.S. District judge in Los Angeles issued a tentative ruling, a summary of which was obtained by Newsweek, stating that the administration policy violates a settlement in a 1997 immigration case, Flores v. Meese.

Obama’s detention and deportation of hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants remains a sore spot for immigrant rights and Latino activists, even after the president granted a reprieve, via executive order, to millions who came to the United States as children and to those who have children who were born here and thus are American citizens. The practice of holding thousands of women and their children—it’s just mothers and their kids in these facilities, most of them fleeing dire circumstances in Central America— in fortress-like compounds in Texas and Pennsylvania, some for months on end, has prompted a particularly strong backlash.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/court-ruling-on-immigration-could-rock-obama-2016-race/ar-BBjYw28

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Response by MAJ Robert (Bob) Petrarca made May 20 at 2015 5:19 AM

2015-05-20T05:19:55-04:00

"whether it’s legal to essentially lock up women and children who’ve crossed the border illegally" And therein lies the conundrum this country can't seem to get past.

If it's illegal to cross the border it should be legal to detain and deport. THEIR "dire plight" in THEIR country is not OUR problem. We're dealing with our own citizens who have their own dire plights right here that we cant seem to fix.

Response by MAJ Robert (Bob) Petrarca made May 20 at 2015 5:26 AM

2015-05-20T05:26:05-04:00

We need to amend the laws that allow someone to cross the border, legally or illegally, and give birth to a ready made and recognized US Citizen no questions asked. IMHO, a child born in this country should not be afforded a legal status greater than that of their parents. This loophole only adds fuel to the debate because how can you send the parents packing if the child is a US citizen by birth right?

Just curious, for SMs serving overseas, if they have a child born in another country is that child automatically a citizen of the country they are born in? If the SMs are US citizens, are the children afforded dual citizenship?

Response by PO3 Sherry Thornburg made May 20 at 2015 10:48 AM

2015-05-20T10:48:40-04:00

and this is how different from the detainment and housing of women and children on GITMO back in 1995.

Answer: in 1995 they were held off U.S. mainland soil until their cases could be properly looked into and processed. I was there from 1995 to 1997. They were well treated, taken care of. If we didn't keep them somewhere until their cases are processed, what would happen to them? Where would they stay? How would they live? They come here with almost nothing and not knowing much of anything about what it takes to get anywhere in this country.

Would knowing that human traffickers (Modern Slavery scouts) on this side of the border look for these unfortunate people, who won't know any better, for exploitation help make the need for detention facilities clear?

The fact that so many were kids coming over alone makes it that much more important to not just send them off into the streets to fend for themselves until their cases are processed. I personally would have sent everyone of those kids back home as soon as they showed up. We don't have orphanages here and our foster care system, as it is, can't be used for this purpose. I remember the news about advertisements offering people money to take in these kids in the mid-west and other places. Whose idea was it to put these kids on auction to anyone that needed a live-in babysitter or house servant?

This is a very sore subject for me. Rant over.