Obama throws
down the gauntlet on immigration: His regularization of 5
million undocumented
immigrants may be legal, but it promises to widen
even further the
chasm between Republican and Democrats. Columnist
Luis
Herrera-Lasso writes that Mexico should back the U.S. leader.
Mexican Leaders
Must Back Obama on Immigration (El Universal, Mexico)
"The
economic and social agenda of the United States continues to rack up deficits,
deficiencies and imbalances. Migration is one of them. Republicans can be proud
of Obama's limited achievements following Bush's legacy, which marked the
beginning of the decline of the United States. Rolling back health care reform
and preventing immigration reform are now their central banners. Everything
suggests that today, the principal threat to the well-being and power of the
people of the U.S, comes from within - and not without. … The situation should
be reviewed carefully and responsibly in terms of what Mexico can do to support
Obama in his battle for regularization, which to us is not an issue of
foreigners."
After losing his Democratic majority – now in both houses of
Congress, President Barack Obama has announced he will take a series of
administrative measures to advance the regularization of undocumented
immigrants in the United States, roughly 11 million foreigners. Republicans
John Boehner and Mitch McConnell, leaders of their respective congressional
chambers, respond that if Obama goes it alone on these matters it will be taken
as a declaration of war.
The truth is that the Republican war against Obama began the
day he was elected. Considered not one of their own, he was considered a threat
to their interests.
Indeed, Republican power was consolidated under the
administration of George W. Bush. At the dawn of the new century, President
Clinton left the government of the United States with a budget surplus, a
commercial trade surplus and no wars on the agenda. Within eight short years,
Republicans left the United States with the largest fiscal and trade deficits
in history, engaged in a war with no possibility of victory and diminished
global leadership. Obama began with a robust discourse aimed at rebuilding the
domestic and international agendas in the United States.
In the end the Republican ballast proved too heavy. In 2013,
the United States recorded a trade deficit of $566 billion and a fiscal deficit
of $776 billion. The rescue after the 2008 financial crisis cost taxpayers $700
billion.
Internationally, things have gone no better. The
relationship between Israel and the Palestinians has became even more
complicated; non-intervention in Syria opened the way to a magnificent space
called the Islamic State that is a threat far superior to al-Qaeda; fears over
the development of nuclear weapons in North Korea and Iran have not diminished;
and Russia has begun to recover its former sphere of influence. The once
beneficial presence of the United States in areas of conflict is no longer.
So a few days ago the president of the People's Republic of
China, Xi Jinping, gave a red carpet welcome to the members of APEC. In the
welcome gallery he placed an agreement for political detente with Japan; a free
trade agreement with South Korea; the construction of a second pipeline with
Russia; and discussions with Vietnam on resolving their territorial disputes.
All of this was nestled in the statement "we have the responsibility to
create and realize the dream of a peaceful Asia" and the announcement to
with great fanfare the initiative for a free trade area for Asia (the
ASEAN-China Free Trade Area or ACFTA) - as opposed to the Trans-Pacific Partnership led by the United States.
Posted By Worldmeets.US
While that was going on in China, the economic and social
agenda of the United States continued to rack up deficits, deficiencies and
imbalances. Migration is one of them. Republicans can be proud of Obama's
limited achievements following Bush's legacy, which marked the beginning of the
decline of the United States. Rolling back health care reform and preventing
immigration reform are now their central banners. Everything suggests that
today, the principal threat to the well-being and power of the people of the
United States comes from within - and not without.
The president of Mexico, in the midst of a crisis [video,
right] which has hurt the country most during his administration, managed to
make the trip to China, meet with Xi Jinping and walk away with 14 agreements
under his arm that give Mexico a seat at the table in this new world. This no
doubt reflects a job well done on the part of the Foreign Ministry and our
ambassador to the country.
Getting back to Mexico and the region, the situation should
be reviewed carefully and responsibly in terms of what Mexico can do to support
Obama in his battle for regularization, which to us is not an issue of
foreigners. We are and will remain more a part of the old world than the new.
