June, 02 2010, 01:12pm EDT
The Obama/Brewer Meeting: It's Not Just About What Arizona Has Done; It's About What Washington Has Not Done
Three Key Points for President Obama as he Prepares for the Thursday Meeting
WASHINGTON
The news of
President Obama's upcoming meeting on Thursday with Arizona Governor Jan
Brewer (R-AZ) offers an opportunity for President Obama to take back
control of the immigration debate. Below are three important points for
President Obama to remember as he prepares for the meeting:
1. The
public wants Washington to step up on immigration reform: President Obama needs to understand the
sentiments underlying the Arizona law and its popularity. The American
people are clamoring for action on immigration reform and want the issue
addressed at the national level. In absence of federal action on
comprehensive reform, however, they will support Arizona-like laws to
the detriment of public safety and civil rights. In new bipartisan polling,
Lake Research Partners and Public Opinion Strategies found that three
out of five voters supported the Arizona law. However, four out of five
of the same voters who support the Arizona law also support
comprehensive immigration reform with a path to legal status for
undocumented immigrants; only one out of five of these voters support
deportation as the preferred policy option when asked what to do about
the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country.
2. "No
More Arizonas": President
Obama needs to exert leadership to staunch the spread of other state
laws modeled after Arizona's. The popularity of Arizona's law should
not obscure the President or anyone else from recognizing the damages
the Arizona law will inflict on the state and its residents -
undocumented and citizens alike. Conservative columnist Ruben
Navarrette Jr. summed up the consequences well today, writing,
"Here are the facts: (1) Arizona lawmakers have boxed police officers in
with a law that requires them -- under threat of litigation -- to check
the citizenship of anyone they suspect of being in the country
illegally once they make contact due to an alleged infraction; (2) the
list of "infractions" is broad enough to include everything from
trespassing to vagrancy to soliciting work to attending a party where
the music is too loud; and (3) police officers are going to do
everything they can to fulfill their obligations under the law." The
President and Members of Congress from both parties must recognize that a
state-by-state patchwork of Arizona-like laws promises to worsen the
existing problems of our broken immigration system. We need to stop the
spread of Arizona and instead enact a national solution in the form of
comprehensive immigration reform.
3. Where
are the GOP champions?:
President Obama needs to secure a commitment from Governor Brewer to
lobby her home-state Senators to be champions of reform. While the
President needs to exert more muscle in pursuing comprehensive
immigration reform, he's right in pointing out that Republicans
aren't exactly making a good faith effort to work to solve
the immigration problem. Past comprehensive reform champions John
McCain (R-AZ) and Jon Kyl (R-AZ) are content to substitute tough talk
about border security for the broader real solutions offered by
comprehensive reform - border enforcement is a necessary but
insufficient part of getting immigration reform right. It does nothing
to stop the jobs magnet or bring the 11 million unauthorized immigrants
into the system legally. And it does nothing to reform our legal
immigration system so that it can respond flexibly to future labor
market needs. Governor Brewer highlights federal inaction as the reason
for her signing of the Arizona law - she should instead point her
finger at her home-state Senators McCain and Kyl, who appear motivated
more by primary politics than a real desire to solve the problem.
According
to Frank Sharry, Executive Director of America's Voice, "The meeting
between President Obama and Governor Brewer is not only about what
Arizona has done; it is about what Washington hasn't done. The Arizona
law is a travesty and will spread to other states unless Washington
steps up and addresses the public's desperate desire to fix the nation's
dysfunctional immigration system once and for all. The same folks who
support the harsh Arizona law support even more strongly a humane,
comprehensive immigration reform level at the Federal level. It's now a
question of who frames the debate and who leans into it with
leadership. If President Obama doesn't, people like Governor Brewer
will."
America's Voice -- Harnessing the power of American voices and American values to win common sense immigration reform. The mission of America's Voice is to realize the promise of workable and humane comprehensive immigration reform. Our goal is to build the public support and create the political momentum for reforms that will transform a dysfunctional immigration system that does not work into a regulatory system that does.
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I look forward to offering amendments tomorrow to cut billions in offensive military funding to Israel from the proposed national security supplemental package and protect essential humanitarian operations. We cannot continue to fund this horrific war. pic.twitter.com/8JpxpT7IX2
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) April 23, 2024
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Over 34,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed by U.S.-backed Israeli troops, and Columbia University students have been suspended and arrested by New York Police Department officers in recent days for protesting the slaughter—which led to a walkout by the Ivy League institution's faculty on Monday.
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Yonah Lieberman, co-founder of IfNotNow, a Jewish-led U.S. group that organizes against Israel's apartheid, declared: "Solidarity with these faculty members. Shame on establishment politicians and agitators who are smearing the anti-war protest at Columbia as anything other than what it is: a courageous stand for freedom and peace."
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"Procedural irregularity, a lack of transparency about the university's decision-making, and the extraordinary involvement of the NYPD all threaten the university's legitimacy within its own community and beyond its gates," they wrote. "We urge the university to conform student discipline to clear and well-established procedures that respect the rule of law."
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The national group Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) on Monday accused Columbia of creating "a climate of repression and harm for students peacefully protesting for an end to the Israeli genocide against Palestinians in Gaza" over the past six months.
"Columbia University has actively created a hostile environment for students who are Palestinian or who support Palestinian freedom. Additionally, the administration's actions have made the campus much less safe for Jewish students," JVP said.
According to JVP:
Instead of listening to the calls of Columbia and Barnard students to divest from the genocide perpetrated by the Israeli government, the university has called in the NYPD to arrest students, suspended them, and even expelled them. At present 85 students, 15 of whom are Jewish, are suspended.
Yesterday's statement by the White House, like the administrators of Columbia University, dangerously and inaccurately presumes that all Jewish students support the Israeli government's genocide of Palestinians. This assumption is actively harming Palestinian and Jewish students.
The administration has not only harassed Jewish students and failed to ensure their safety and well-being, it has also obstructed their religious observances during Shabbat and prevented them from accessing their Jewish community on the eve of Passover.
While President Joe Biden's Sunday statement was officially about Passover—a Jewish holiday that begins at sundown on Monday—and not the protests at Columbia and other campuses across the country, it was widely received as a response to the latter.
Biden said in part that "we must speak out against the alarming surge of antisemitism—in our schools, communities, and online. Silence is complicity. Even in recent days, we've seen harassment and calls for violence against Jews. This blatant antisemitism is reprehensible and dangerous—and it has absolutely no place on college campuses, or anywhere in our country."
Jonathan Ben-Menachem, a Ph.D. student at the university, toldCNN that "Columbia students organizing in solidarity with Palestine—including Jewish students—have faced harassment, doxxing, and now arrest by the NYPD. These are the main threats to the safety of Jewish Columbia students."
"On the other hand, student protesters have led interfaith joint prayers for several days now, and Passover Seder will be held at the Gaza solidarity encampment tomorrow," he added. "Saying that student protesters are a threat to Jewish students is a dangerous smear."
Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine said in a lengthy statement that "we are student activists at Columbia calling for divestment from genocide. We are frustrated by media distractions focusing on inflammatory individuals who do not represent us. At universities across the nation, our movement is united in valuing every human life."
"As a diverse group united by love and justice, we demand our voices be heard against the mass slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza," the statement continues. "We've been horrified each day, watching children crying over the bodies of their slain parents, families without food to eat, and doctors operating without anesthesia. Our university is complicit in this violence and this is why we protest."
The Columbia Spectator reported Monday that Columbia College passed a divestment referendum that "asked whether the university should divest financially from Israel, cancel the Tel Aviv Global Center, and end Columbia's dual degree program with Tel Aviv University," with respective votes of 76.55%, 68.36%, and 65.62%. However, a statement from a university spokesperson signaled the referendum would not lead to any shift in campus policies.
Beyond Columbia, there are ongoing demonstrations at institutions including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, New York University, the University of Michigan, and Yale University, another Ivy League school, where at least 47 peaceful student protesters were arrested on Monday.
Those arrested were "charged with class A misdemeanors, which is the highest class of misdemeanors in Connecticut—the same degree applies to third-degree assault," according to the Yale Daily News. Citing a university spokesperson, the student newspaper added that they "will be referred for Yale disciplinary action—which could include reprimand, probation, or suspension."
Pushing back against some administrators' statements, journalist Thomas Birmingham, who was with the Yale protesters overnight, said on social media: "Here's some things I saw... 1. Repeated and loud calls to remain peaceful. 2. Students locking arms, teaching Arabic and Hebrew, and passing around pizza and water. 3. Lots of singing."
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