Civil Rights

The United States has an immigration problem.

But it is simplistic to think that we can control our immigration problem simply by controlling our borders.  For years, that has been the line of thinking.  And, for years, we have spent more and more money to reinforce the border.  And, for years, more and more immigrants have come across that reinforced border.  So, we need to do more than apply simplistic analyses to this very complex problem.  Certainly, we need to look at border problems.  But we also need to look at U.S. businesses and their need for labor – both now and in the future.  And we need to look at our need for high-skilled immigrants.  And, clearly, we need to look for a realistic approach for dealing with the 11.5 million undocumented immigrants who have been living and working in the United States for years.

Our Immigration System is Broken.  The root of the current crisis of undocumented immigration is a fundamental disconnect between today’s economic and labor market realities and an outdated system of legal immigration. Undocumented immigration is driven in large part by a U.S. labor market that is creating a higher demand for less-skilled workers than is being met by the native-born labor force or by the current legal limits on immigration. Migration from Mexico in particular has increased over the past two decades as the U.S. and Mexican governments have actively promoted the economic integration of the two countries. As the past decade and a half of failed federal border-enforcement efforts make clear, immigration policies that ignore these larger economic forces merely drive migration underground rather than effectively regulate it.  In short, there is an unsustainable contradiction between U.S. economic policy and U.S. immigration policy, and economics is winning. The problem is not undocumented immigrants, but a broken immigration system that sends the dual messages “Keep Out Read more...

Recently, my campaign began airing a commercial on cable television that notes the disappointing direction Bush Republicans have taken our country in these past few years. The President and his rubber-stamp Republican Congress have failed us in Iraq and in the fight to lower the cost of prescription drugs and gasoline prices. We need common-sense change in Congress, and we need it soon. Watch my commercial and let me know what you think.

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison and I arrived by small aircraft in the 100 degree heat of a Texas summer at a municipal airport near the US/Mexico border.

Harlingen, Texas, is ground zero for the influx of illegal aliens from countries "other than Mexico" (OTMs) and, like San Diego yesterday, has made tremendous progress reducing the flow of human traffic in recent years. Shortly after our arrival we watched as the Coast Guard jet carrying DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff touched down and taxied to the terminal. A huge motorcade pulled up to the aircraft and we were spirited into an oversize van for an immediate briefing and border tour.

Secretary Chertoff is an intense and impressive administrator. He peppered the U.S. Border leadership at our briefing with questions and outlined upcoming strategies with ease. Yesterday, Secretary Chertoff made national news announcing that all OTM's would be subject to the new "catch and remove" policy, ending a long-time policy of allowing illegals to leave custody on a promise to return for a hearing six weeks later. As we left the tarmac, we watched as dozens of OTM' s were escorted to two waiting 737 aircraft for a return trip to their Central American homes. Read more...

The Republican war on science suffered a defeat today when the Food and Drug Administration finally approved Plan B for over-the-counter purchase. The President's appointees to the agency and his allies in Congress have been stonewalling this women's health issue for more than three years, despite overwhelming support from the scientific and medical community, as well as from women's health groups. The FDA went so far as to ignore the findings of its own scientific staff, ignoring the facts and distorting public health concerns for political gain.

Former Assistant FDA Commissioner Susan F. Wood resigned in protest, saying she could "no longer serve as staff when scientific and clinical evidence, fully evaluated and recommended for approval by the professional staff here, has been overruled." Her courageous stand brought much needed attention to the issue, and today we see it was not in vain. Senators Hillary Clinton and Patty Murray have held the Administration's feet to the fire, providing necessary oversight by preventing Bush crony Andrew von Eschenbach from serving as FDA Director.

Sadly, the furor over Plan B is just one struggle in the Bush Administration's attempts to put politics over science. As Rep. Henry Waxman extensively documented last month, federal support for "abstinence-only" education programs has expanded rapidly under the Bush Administration. The federal government will spend approximately $170 million on abstinence-only education initiatives during the current fiscal year, more than twice the amount spent in fiscal year 2001. As a result, millions of children and adolescents each year receive abstinence-only education, which promotes abstinence from sexual activity while failing to teach basic facts about contraception. You can read Waxman's report here.

The news on Plan B sends a loud and clear message - science can not be trumped by the Republicans' ideology. Reproductive rights, family planning, and contraception are personal medical issues that should be discussed between families and their doctors - not turned into political fodder to appease far right extremists. American women have waited far too long for this crucial victory that it is a step in the right direction.

While the protection of individual civil liberties from an intrusive government is at the core of the Constitution, it should not be a shield for those who are plotting the murder of innocent civilians.  As Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson once said, "The Constitution is not a suicide pact."

We need more tools, not fewer, to defeat the terrorists.  The secret surveillance program, instituted in the wake of the 9-11 attacks, is an effective tool in tracking suspected terrorists.  It only monitors international phone calls to or from the United States where one of the parties is suspected to have links to al Qaeda or other terrorist networks.  Those not part of these terror networks have nothing to worry about.  The concept behind this program is easy to understand:  Find out where the terrorists live, who pays them, and who they are meeting with.  Next, use this information to get them before they get you.  That's what the American people expect.

I was dismayed to read yesterday in Newsday that House Homeland Security Chairman Peter King "has endorsed requiring people of 'Middle Eastern and South Asian' descent to undergo additional security checks because of their ethnicity and religion" in airports. This sort of ethnic profiling is racist, ineffective, and counterproductive.

Allowing unwarranted scrutiny of any brown-skinned person would be a waste of time and energy. Take me for instance. As a Puerto Rican, I am frequently confused for someone of Middle Eastern descent and asked for identification when traveling. I have never posed a threat to anyone and have begun to resent this intrusion on my privacy.

Profiling like this is also a waste of scarce resources. It's important to remember that not all terrorists look "Middle Eastern." Many of the recent arrests in Europe involved home-grown terrorists and converts, who were not of Middle Eastern origin. These plotters were not caught through further screening but rather solid investigative work. The lesson to be learned here is that our counter-terrorism resources should go to improved intelligence and law enforcement, not racial- or religious-based screening.

On this issue, I stand with NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly (formerly head for the U.S. Customs Service) who called the practice "nuts" and "ineffective." Mr. King should retract his statement and work instead on finding practical and real solutions to protecting our homeland rather than calling for an ineffective, discriminatory practice that would lull us into a false of security.

The August 17 decision in ACLU v. NSA declaring unconstitutional the National Security Agency’s foreign intelligence surveillance program is poorly reasoned, reckless, and easy for an appeals court to reverse.  Space here limits describing even the categories, let alone the instances, of errors in Judge Anna Diggs Taylor’s opinion.

Judge Taylor states conclusions without any analysis at all.  She notes, for example, the plaintiffs’ claim that the NSA program violates the Administrative Procedure Act and, 39 pages later, concludes that it does.  The pages in between lack any mention, even a description, of this claim.  Judge Taylor simply skipped it.

Judge Taylor cites court decisions for the opposite of what they held.  Not only is her claim that the Fourth Amendment requires a warrant for every search patently false, but she cited cases affirming that the president’s constitutional authority allows him to gather foreign intelligence without prior judicial approval. Read more...

In another sharp rebuke to the Bush administration’s ongoing abuse of presidential power, a federal court ruled that the National Security Agency cannot continue to intercept the phone calls and emails of Americans without court warrants. This was the first ruling by a federal court on the constitutionality of the illegal spying program and was in response to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union.

In her ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Anna Diggs Taylor agreed with the ACLU that the NSA warrantless spying program violates our rights to free speech and privacy under the First and Fourth Amendments of the Constitution. She also found that the program violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Additionally, she rejected the government’s argument that the case could not proceed because of concerns that “state secrets Read more...

This has become another unfortunate example of how White House misdirection, arrogance and mismanagement have needlessly complicated our goal of protecting the American people. I have always believed that the Bush-Cheney warrantless domestic spying program violated our laws. We can and should wiretap terrorists under the current FISA law. The problem has been the Bush-Cheney Administration’s insistence on doing it illegally, without checks and balances to prevent abusing the rights of Americans. By following the Constitution and our laws, we can protect both our security and our American values.

This Sunday, August 20th, will mark the 10-year anniversary of the last time that the Congress increased the minimum wage, an unconscionable fact that currently leaves millions of workers struggling simply to put food on their table.  Unfortunately, instead of addressing this issue, the Republican leadership is playing political games, as evident by their recent move to tie a vote on the minimum wage to yet another tax cut for the wealthiest 7,500 families in America.  This is absurd.

Over 6 million workers in America would directly benefit from a two-step raise in the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 per hour.  It's time that the Republican leadership stopped playing games with these workers and allowed for an up or down vote when the Congress returns from recess.