Obama appoints US immigrant rights champion to head CIA
07/01/2009 by Bryan Palmer

News that Leon Panetta, the former Chief of Staff for President Clinton, has been appointed to head the CIA will be interesting indeed for anyone following US immigration policy.

Over the past two years, Panetta has been particularly critical of the conflict between the President and Congress as being the main barrier in preventing the necessary overhaul of the immigration to America procedures. Since 2005, Leon Panetta has served as a member of the Independent Task Force on Immigration and America's Future.

He has derided the lack of coherent leadership in Washington as harming many industries reliant on immigrant workers.

He has labeled the US federal visa and passport systems as 'dysfunctional', keeping out of the country 59 million short and long term visitors who would be either eating or serving in restaurants throughout the United States.

Panetta maintained that the malfunctioning USA visa system denies foreigners the opportunity to see the US and its citizens at home. In his opinion, "the most powerful weapon in the war against terrorism is the American experience".

He reserved particular criticism for the way in which President Bush failed to take advantage of the opportunity to enact comprehensive immigration reform in 2006 and 2007, knowing full well that in the final year of the presidential term, bipartisanship would only increase.

http://www.globalvisas.com/news/obama_a ... ia757.html