Thread: A Novice To Manage Immigration Policy (Opinion)

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/op-e ... ndeer.html

A novice to manage immigration policy

UNION-TRIBUNE
January 12, 2006

The fellow next door seems pleasant enough. Might he make a good Cabinet secretary?

Any of us must have at least 100 friends smart enough for the Supreme Court.

And what about one of those bright checkout clerks at the drugstore to run Immigration and Customs?

Silly as it sounds, this is very close to the approach President Bush seems to have taken toward an astonishing number of high-level appointments. One supposes he'd consider the gravity of any leadership job calling for Senate approval. How does it happen, then, that three times within a space of 18 weeks the nation has witnessed a strangely cavalier attitude toward the presidential appointive power? An attitude bordering, it appears, on abuse of that power.

First was Bush's discovery that an Arabian horse expert had not been an auspicious choice to head the Federal Emergency Management Agency – a blunder immortalized by the now historic utterance, "You're doing a heckuva job, Brownie." The FEMA farce was still playing on what's left of our vaudeville circuit when Bush faced a task most presidents find awesome – selecting a Supreme Court justice. Suggestive of a magician's rabbit-from-the-hat, however, he pulled the unknown Harriet Miers from deep within his White House legal staff, where hitherto she blushed unseen as the rose in Gray's Elegy. Her nomination was mercifully withdrawn after a fortnight of cruelly embarrassing public examination.

We now have a new personnel selection for which there can be no persuasive explanation. With a major battle just ahead over tightening U.S. borders, Bush designates yet another White House functionary, 36-year-old Julie Myers, to manage our newly combined Immigration & Customs Enforcement. This agency was intended to be an important element in Homeland Security's defense against terror. The Myers appointment hardly squares with that expectation. It's more like seeing Radio City Rockettes dispatched to relief of the Alamo.

Almost as startling as the selection itself, first announced in September, has been the president's manner of implementing it. When Senate response pointed to a heated confirmation battle, Bush bided his time until the congressional Christmas break. He then exercised an executive prerogative available to a president when Congress is out of town. He simply puts his nominee on the job for one year without confirmation, and the hell with what those senators may think of her. More than a dozen lesser appointments were similarly slipped past Capitol Hill gatekeepers at year's end, the same way bully-boy John Bolton became ambassador to the United Nations.

Yes, a president can do things this way, but how smart is it? Julie Myers becomes the first boss of a crucially important adjunct to the Department of Homeland Security. She signs on absent an iota of experience in the immigration service or customs. And without public hearings that would have revealed hers as possibly the worst job assignment that has been made even by the ham-handed hiring hall this administration has become.

Purely as a guideline, the statute establishing Myers' job calls for someone with a minimum of five years' experience in law enforcement. (Her most recent responsibility had been the management of White House interns.) The new job gives her the supervision of more than 20,000 immigration and custom officers and other assorted staffers, plus a budget to match.

And what specific duties? The Homeland Security Act puts her in charge of investigating alien smuggling, illegal arms trafficking and money laundering. Our borders will actually be guarded by a different bureaucracy, but Myers' agency will be charged with finding terrorists whose entry eluded detection. You go, girl!

The most sensitive duty falling to our new administrator could be the imposition of fines against U.S. employers who willfully violate the statute against hiring undocumented aliens. Should anyone get tough on these folk, it would be for the first time ever. Indeed, the most caustic comment seen anywhere concerning the Myers appointment comes from an editorial in the reliably conservative National Review, which writes of the lady:

"Her nomination highlights the administration's desire to keep immigration management on a short leash, lest some rogue official embarrass the White House by actually enforcing immigration law."

Hmm-mm. Could be they're keeping it all in the family. Administrator Myers is a niece of Gen. Richard B. Myers, recently retired chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. And she's the recent bride of John F. Wood, who is chief assistant to Michael Chertoff – yes, the secretary of Homeland Security.


Van Deerlin represented a San Diego County district in Congress for 18 years.

Originally Posted by butterbean

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/op-ed/vandeerlin/20060112-9999-lz1e12vandeer.html

A novice to manage immigration policy

UNION-TRIBUNE
January 12, 2006

The fellow next door seems pleasant enough. Might he make a good Cabinet secretary?

Any of us must have at least 100 friends smart enough for the Supreme Court.

And what about one of those bright checkout clerks at the drugstore to run Immigration and Customs?

Silly as it sounds, this is very close to the approach President Bush seems to have taken toward an astonishing number of high-level appointments. One supposes he'd consider the gravity of any leadership job calling for Senate approval. How does it happen, then, that three times within a space of 18 weeks the nation has witnessed a strangely cavalier attitude toward the presidential appointive power? An attitude bordering, it appears, on abuse of that power.

First was Bush's discovery that an Arabian horse expert had not been an auspicious choice to head the Federal Emergency Management Agency – a blunder immortalized by the now historic utterance, "You're doing a heckuva job, Brownie." The FEMA farce was still playing on what's left of our vaudeville circuit when Bush faced a task most presidents find awesome – selecting a Supreme Court justice. Suggestive of a magician's rabbit-from-the-hat, however, he pulled the unknown Harriet Miers from deep within his White House legal staff, where hitherto she blushed unseen as the rose in Gray's Elegy. Her nomination was mercifully withdrawn after a fortnight of cruelly embarrassing public examination.

We now have a new personnel selection for which there can be no persuasive explanation. With a major battle just ahead over tightening U.S. borders, Bush designates yet another White House functionary, 36-year-old Julie Myers, to manage our newly combined Immigration & Customs Enforcement. This agency was intended to be an important element in Homeland Security's defense against terror. The Myers appointment hardly squares with that expectation. It's more like seeing Radio City Rockettes dispatched to relief of the Alamo.

Almost as startling as the selection itself, first announced in September, has been the president's manner of implementing it. When Senate response pointed to a heated confirmation battle, Bush bided his time until the congressional Christmas break. He then exercised an executive prerogative available to a president when Congress is out of town. He simply puts his nominee on the job for one year without confirmation, and the hell with what those senators may think of her. More than a dozen lesser appointments were similarly slipped past Capitol Hill gatekeepers at year's end, the same way bully-boy John Bolton became ambassador to the United Nations.

Yes, a president can do things this way, but how smart is it? Julie Myers becomes the first boss of a crucially important adjunct to the Department of Homeland Security. She signs on absent an iota of experience in the immigration service or customs. And without public hearings that would have revealed hers as possibly the worst job assignment that has been made even by the ham-handed hiring hall this administration has become.

Purely as a guideline, the statute establishing Myers' job calls for someone with a minimum of five years' experience in law enforcement. (Her most recent responsibility had been the management of White House interns.) The new job gives her the supervision of more than 20,000 immigration and custom officers and other assorted staffers, plus a budget to match.

And what specific duties? The Homeland Security Act puts her in charge of investigating alien smuggling, illegal arms trafficking and money laundering. Our borders will actually be guarded by a different bureaucracy, but Myers' agency will be charged with finding terrorists whose entry eluded detection. You go, girl!

The most sensitive duty falling to our new administrator could be the imposition of fines against U.S. employers who willfully violate the statute against hiring undocumented aliens. Should anyone get tough on these folk, it would be for the first time ever. Indeed, the most caustic comment seen anywhere concerning the Myers appointment comes from an editorial in the reliably conservative National Review, which writes of the lady:

"Her nomination highlights the administration's desire to keep immigration management on a short leash, lest some rogue official embarrass the White House by actually enforcing immigration law."

Hmm-mm. Could be they're keeping it all in the family. Administrator Myers is a niece of Gen. Richard B. Myers, recently retired chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. And she's the recent bride of John F. Wood, who is chief assistant to Michael Chertoff – yes, the secretary of Homeland Security.


Van Deerlin represented a San Diego County district in Congress for 18 years.

So What? Everyone talks about how Bush is Killing this country.Yet nothing is being done to stop him.It`s all talk,and soon it will be too late.Imagine this mighty country being knocked down by one little runt of a man.All I ever hear is Talk,Talk,Talk.
I also wonder,who it is Bush is talking to when he gives his (By Invitation only) speaches.I also wonder how our troops could be SO HAPPY!! knowing the country thay are suppose to be fighting for,America,is being desloved while they are away! What the hell are these troops being told that would make them HAPPY about what they are doing in IRAQ?Someone is lying to them,I think I know who it is.If something isn`t done soon,very soon,it will be too late.Just try to imagine the America our Children will have to live in.Our children will never know the America we knew.All of the people that have died defending this country will turn in the grave knowing that it was all in vain,it ment nothing.Our so called persident is concerned about a Civil War in Iraq,he better start worring about a Civil War in America............SOON. Bush dosn`t even know his own people.He proves that over and over again..Impeach Bush Today......for the sake of this country.

The Julie Myers appointment was deliberate. BUSH has absolutely NO INTENTION of enforcing our laws. He is daring the American People. He believes he can end our nation; that is what he is up to; it is a maze of agreements and strategies that best I can tell are working perfectly. Another year of defying our laws, another 5,000,000 illegal entries, some babies...now its 10,000,000....before the Senate even got to confirm the appointee.

It's a race of time and numbers...every day matters because every day this is not resolved, the numbers increase, the national debt increases, the chance for total demise of the United States increases.

A saw a report from Harvard that estimates the actual cost of the war in Iraq with post war cost obligations to veterans and replenishing equipment and inventories will be almost $2 trillion.

I just heard on Hannity and Colmes, the Budget Office is estimating a $400 Billion budget deficit for 2006 which brings as of January 12, 2006 our $8.3 Trillion National Debt to almost $9 Trillion with interest.

And they haven't even collected all the bodies in New Orleans let alone started the massive rebuilding effort there.

40% of this debt is owned by foreign nations, mostly Japan and China.

When our government borrows money, it borrows it on the faith and credit of the United States of America which means it borrows it in the names of its Citizens. The debt has to be repaid by US...not some magical money cloud with a silver lining in Washington DC. The debts and their interest are in our names. When there isn't enough revenue in Washington to pay it, as there isn't presently, then the government will assess us as citizens to repay the debt and interest.

With declining wages, huge unemployment that is simply not being reported because of the new way they count unemployed which is not to count them, 37 new FTA's that are sucking jobs and investment out of the United States, open borders policy that is flooding the United States with people we have no jobs for except to give them ours who can not sustain themsleves and then suck off the public....we are destined to financial bankruptcy this Presidential term.

All the foreign nations are watching and the ones who own our debt are just waiting....to bankrupt the United States which means bankrupting the American People. That is the road to Globalism, world tyranny, and a terrible terrible future...more terrible than we can imagine.

BUSH AND CHENEY have to go and they have to go N O W!!

Call your Rep and Sen and tell them to pass HB 635; amend it to include CHENEY, get this show on the road to Impeach Bush and Cheney and swear in Dennis Hastert, who is not perfect but better than Bush and Cheney, President of the United States to complete the term of George Wackident Bush.

Our troops are not happy. That is a lie. What American could be "happy" in Iraq?? Peaceful or otherwise? These are Americans. They want to come home.

The Julie Myer's appointment has just made my BLOOD BOIL. That woman is NO MORE CAPABLE of heading up ICE than I AM. Well, maybe LESS CAPABLE than I would be! And, that ain't saying much! It is just this SNEAKY kind of stuff this MANIAC does that has made this country distrust everything he does. If this person was QUALIFIED for that IMPORTANT job, OBVIOUSLY he would have WANTED her to go through the confirmation process. ONCE AGAIN, he has SOMETHING TO HIDE and he's figured out a way to BYPASS EVERY CHANNEL to get what he wants. I was WONDERING if Congress had ANY recourse with these recess appointments and that article answered my question. That woman is THERE FOR A YEAR and there isn't a damn thing Congress can do about it.

And, as for the Iraq situation and those poor soldiers--OF COURSE they are being lied to AND I don't believe that MOST of them are all that happy. They are TOLD what they have to say and that's what our military DOES--they OBEY their COMMANDER IN CHIEF.

The scary scenario of our debt--especially with CHINA of all places--is going to come back to haunt us FOR YEARS TO COME. ARE they THAT STUPID that they don't SEE that CHINA IS A COMMUNIST COUNTRY with NUCLEAR WEAPONS and an army that is growing BY THE MINUTE? Do they not SEE that China is now OPENLY threatening Taiwan? And, how many times have we heard Bush say that we will DEFEND TAIWAN??? Well, I would like to know how in the HELL he hopes to do that??? WHAT do they think will happen the FIRST TIME WE CROSS CHINA and they CALL THAT DEBT??? Is BUSH going to lend the country that money? CHENEY?? China is going to be the RUINATION of our country---mark my words. It is so OBVIOUS--THIS ADMINISTRATION has SOLD OUR COUNTRY TO CHINA.

I truly believe that is the plan...for China to rule the masses...that's why they are letting them build their economy by stealing ours. Why else would our government allow a Communist Nation full and complete access to infiltrate our markets and steal whatever production or technology they want?

That's a VERY GOOD question. I have NO IDEA what the answer would be. WHY is our government BLIND to what people like us, novices so to speak, can so clearly see??? SO, it just makes you believe that there is a MASTER PLAN that we are not being told about. ANY FOOL SHOULD be concerned that China OWNS us, HATES us and will do ANYTHING to surpass us as the WORLD'S GREATEST SUPERPOWER. THAT is their goal and they make no bones about it.