Thread: Immigration reform tough during crisis, Biden says

"It's difficult to tell a constituency while unemployment is rising, they're losing their jobs and their homes, that what we should do is in fact legalize (illegal immigrants) and stop all deportation," Biden told a news conference in the Costa Rican capital.

President Barack Obama said during his election campaign that he supported comprehensive immigration reform, as countries like Mexico have been urging for years.

Some 12 million illegal immigrants live in the United States, many from Mexico and Central America. The economic crisis has made many U.S. workers more hostile to legalizing those without papers.

"We believe, the president and I, that this problem can only be solved in the context of an overall immigration reform," Biden said, asked about the chances of extending temporary migrant protection programs.

"We need some forbearance as we try to put together a comprehensive approach to deal with this."

Biden was in Costa Rica to meet Central American leaders at an informal regional summit.

http://www.reuters.com/article/politics ... SE20090330

And what else has the Biden family been up to? Apparently trying to cover up a scandal.
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Ashley Biden Alleged Cocaine Tape Seller Withdraws Under Fire
The Huffington Post | Megan Slack | March 30, 2009 10:19 AM

Washington lawyer Thomas Dunlap is under fire for attempting to sell a video of Ashley Biden, the 27-year-old daughter of Joe Biden, allegedly snorting lines of cocaine at a Delaware party last month.

The New York Post claims that Dunlap showed it 90 seconds of the 43-minute tape, which purportedly shows Ashley doing lines of coke with a red straw in front of witnesses and later shouting "Shut the F-- Up!" The newspaper reported that the seller wanted $2 million before dropping his price to $400,000.

Radar Online reported that Dunlap has since dropped the client after he learned the tape was recorded on a hidden camera, complaining about all the "negative attention."

Dunlap told RadarOnline.com early Sunday that he is no longer involved in the attempted sale of the video and informed his client he would not continue to represent him. The lawyer said he did not want to be involved due to circumstances surrounding the publicity of the matter.

According to the New York Post, the video in question shows a woman who looks like Biden talking and snorting several lines of cocaine with a straw.

The video ... shows a 20-something woman with light skin and long brown hair taking a red straw from her mouth, bending over a desk, inserting the straw into her nostril and snorting lines of white powder.


She then stands up and begins talking with other people in the room.

Vice President Joe Biden, who coined the term "drug czar" in 1982, has not yet commented on the story.

Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, adds that fellow lawyers are stunned by Dunlop's behavior:

While most people are shocked by the craven acts of the still unidentified friend, most lawyers are equally shocked by the involvement of a member of the bar in allegedly shopping this tape to tabloids for the highest bidder.

Biden is a social worker for a Delaware child-welfare agency.