Why are so many politicians, either here or abroad, afraid to enforce immigration laws?


Immigration battle rattles Dutch cabinet

The Associated Press
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
THE HAGUE
The Dutch prime minister, Jan Peter Balkenende, called an emergency meeting Wednesday of his caretaker cabinet, seeking a way out of a political crisis that has erupted over immigration policy just three weeks after national elections.

In a debate that stretched into the early hours of Wednesday, Parliament passed a motion condemning the immigration minister, Rita Verdonk, after she flatly refused to obey an earlier motion ordering her to freeze deportations of 26,000 illegal immigrants.

"I'm not prepared for a suspension. I've said clearly that after this debate, I'm going to uphold the immigration law," Verdonk said, rejecting a proposal to stop the deportations for a 24-hour cool-down period.

Normally, a parliamentary censure would lead to Verdonk's immediate resignation. But the circumstances were far from normal because the cabinet is acting in a caretaker capacity until a new governing coalition can be installed based on the results of the elections on Nov. 22.

Verdonk's libertarian VVD party, the junior partner in the outgoing government, threatened that all its ministers would resign if she were forced to quit.

Balkenende warned that Verdonk's departure could prompt a constitutional crisis. "We'll look at how the debate went and what there is left for us to do," he said after the motion was narrowly adopted.

The parties met separately Wednesday morning, and Balkenende's cabinet began meeting in the early afternoon.

The defense minister and the minister for overseas development rushed back from a curtailed trip to Afghanistan, but it was not immediately clear if they got back in time for the meeting.

It is highly unusual for Parliament to dismiss an outgoing minister, but not unprecedented. But never before has an entire party walked out of a transition cabinet, and it was unclear what the subsequent procedure would be.

Queen Beatrix, the head of state who normally has only figurehead political functions, could play a pivotal role by refusing to accept the resignations of some or all of the ministers.

Under the Constitution, caretaker governments are not supposed to make major policy changes. Verdonk's program to deport 26,000 asylum seekers who stayed illegally after their applications were rejected before 2001 has been a pillar of the coalition's policy.

The new left-leaning majority that emerged after the elections in November, advocating a pardon for the asylum seekers, sought to halt the expulsions, fearing it could take months before a new coalition was ready to take office.

Verdonk, known as "Iron Rita," has also imposed mandatory citizenship tests for immigrants and detention of asylum-seekers while their application is processed.

The opposition Labor leader, Wouter Bos, who is in talks with Balkenende's Christian Democrats over forming a potential centrist alliance, said he hoped for "de-escalation."

"Now that Verdonk has chosen a confrontation we hope we can keep it aimed at her and we won't make it bigger. As far as we're concerned this doesn't have to affect the whole cabinet," he said.

Copyright © 2006 The International Herald Tribune | www.iht.com