Arizona Against Immigration
A controversial Arizona law has caused grave concern to immigrants
Dr. Uttam Kumar Das writes from Minneapolis, USA
The US immigration system has been an area of interest during my program here. I am taking a full-course on Immigration Law as part of my LLM (Master of Law) program this Spring Semester 2010.
The topic has dominated much of the discussions starting from the academic debates to professional conferences. Much has been in debate following the filing of an Immigration Reform Bill in the US Congress last December. However, when this law is going to be passed or implemented, no one could say.
In another development, a new legislation adopted in the southern border state of Arizona has sparked new debates.
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer has signed an immigration bill into law for the state on April 23. This is considered as the “toughest law against the illegal immigrant.”
Legal and judicial questions have also emerged whether a state could adopt such a law overruling the federal position with regard to immigration.
Though immigration is a federal matter, Arizona has challenged that principle. The Department of Justice is reportedly to challenge the legality and validity of the Arizona law.
The much debated law will take effect on July 29 unless its implementation is blocked by any legal or judicial intervention, i.e., court injunctions etc. So far, there have been three pending legal challenges already filed by a Hispanic clergy group, a police officer and another individual.
The law is likely to make it a crime if an immigrant doesn’t carry his or her immigration documents with them apparently at all times.
It also empowers the police to detain anyone who are “suspected of being in this country illegally.” The law’s reported aim is to “identify, prosecute and deport illegal immigrants.”
It has provisions that in enforcing law, police might question anyone about his or her “immigration status” if there is "reasonable suspicion." However, there is no definition in the law what this “reasonable suspicion” means. The Arizona law also makes it a state crime to be in the US illegally.
The critics of the law comment that the law will result in “racial profiling of Hispanics.” Some are opposing the new law because it seems to encourage “racial profiling” which is prohibited by numerous existing laws in the country.
The New York Times/CBS poll finds that only 0.51% of the public opinion is in favor of this new immigration law. Opposition is overwhelming.
On May 5, Mayor of Boston Thomas M. Menino and Boston City Council asked the residents of Boston to protest against Arizona’s new immigration law by “cutting ties with companies based in Arizona that agree with the new law,” according to Boston-based Irish Immigrant Newspaper. Mayor Menino whose grandfather was an immigrant comments that Arizona has opted for isolation adopting such as law.
This has a cost as well. Phoenix, a major city in Arizona has already reports loss of $90 million due to “immigration law boycott,” as the New York Daily News reports on May 11. Professional and other organizations are shifting their scheduled events out of Arizona.
However, there are other moves as well: at least 10 States are reportedly looking to copy Arizona’s law. Those States include Utah, Oklahoma, Colorado, Ohio, Missouri, Georgia, South Carolina, Mississippi, Texas and Maryland, according to the Huffington Post.
According to Minneapolis-based Senior Immigration Attorney Scott M. Borene who has been advocating for the reform process, it (immigration reform) is in the top three priorities of President Obama administration. The Attorney acknowledges that U.S. economy is benefited both from the legal and illegal immigrants. “We need immigrants to meet up the deficit in the workforce,” says Attorney Borene at a presentation at the Minnesota State Bar Association on April 19.
The reform aims to pave the way for legalization of an estimated 1.2 million illegal immigrants among others.
However, President Obama administration is now likely stuck with other priorities. After the battle over the health care reform bill, the administration has likely been busy with Afghan war, “home-grown terrorism” issue and at the latest fire in the oil reserve in the Mexico Gulf.
That is why observers see that it is very unlikely to pass the federal immigration reform by this year.
However, professional bodies like the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) have come up with bunch of recommendations. According to a release of AILA, it “…believes any effective, long-term solution to the immigration problem must: 1) require the undocumented population to come out of the shadows and earn legal status; 2) ensure that American businesses are able to hire the workers they need to help grow our economy while protecting U.S. workers from unfair competition; 3) reduce the unreasonable and counterproductive backlogs in family-based and employment-based immigration by reforming the permanent immigration system; and 4) protect our national security and the rule of law while preserving and restoring fundamental principles of due process and equal protection.”
I find no other recommendation but to support AILA’s ones to cover the issue as a whole. It is true that without a specific plan of action by President Obama and the Congress (especially support of the members from the opposition Republic) this new immigration reform bill may also embrace the reality of “no vote” like previous ones as happened in 2008 and 2009. And that is the fear of the related professionals and observers.
Dr. Uttam Kumar Das is a Bangladeshi human rights lawyer currently affiliated with the Human Rights Center and Law School at the University of Minnesota, U.S.A. as a Humphrey Fellow. E-mail: udas1971@gmail.com.
*Originally appeared in the PROBE News Magazine (Dhaka, Bangladesh), May 21-27, 2010; link: http://www.probenewsmagazine.com/index.php?index=2&contentId=6043.
Showing posts with label Barack Obama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Barack Obama. Show all posts
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
American Diary: Debate on healthcare reform
Debate on healthcare reform*
by Dr. Uttam Kumar Das writes from New York
“Pace of health care reform bogs down under weight of questions and costs” -- the front-page headline of The Buffalo News on July 26, 2009 portrays the present scenario of President Barrack Obama’s proposed healthcare reform initiative. It has generated a great debate throughout the country.
The draft legislation has been under review by a six-member Senate Committee in the office of the Senate Finance Committee chairman since June 17.
It is very unlikely that the US$ 1 trillion overhauling-plan will get an approval before the August recess of the Congress, a dateline set by the President earlier.
It is likely that the President has placed the healthcare reform at the top of his legislative priority. He is pushing for a measure that aims to rein in healthcare costs, improve care and expand coverage to most of the 46 million uninsured Americans.
As the Buffalo News reports, some 14,000 Americans are reportedly losing their health care every day. The majority of them are bankruptcies—62 percent— result from health care costs, along with 50 percent of mortgage foreclosures.
Some observer opines that the present healthcare system has become a “cancer” on US economy.
In 1970, the healthcare costs took up 7.2 percent of the economy, which is now 16 percent.
Americans spent an average of about US$ 6,500 per person on health care in 2006. It is by far the most in the world, and more than twice what Japanese and Germans spent.
However, as of July 28, the reform-agenda has been stalled in the Senate and House of Representatives. Both the houses are controlled by President’s fellow Democrats.
It has been hit by a deluge of criticism over the cost, scope and funding of the measure proposed.
The opposition Republicans are critical of the proposed plan, terming it as an expensive first step toward a government takeover of healthcare.
Some commentators see the struggle in the U.S. Congress over the healthcare reform as Democrats' "honeymoon" with Democratic President Obama coming to an end. Mr. Obama took the office of the President only six months back.
It is also commentated that if the Democratic-controlled Congress and the President could manage to iron out differences and enact healthcare reform by this year, Obama will be able to have fulfilled the most important promises of his 2008 election campaigns.
The proposed healthcare reform is termed as an essential to long-term viability for the US economy.
It is expected to reduce regional disparities in Medicare payments. Now, the Federal Medical Program insures around 44 million elderly and disabled Americans at an annual cost of US$ 450 billion. This is the one-fifth of the US healthcare spending.
As proposed in the reform legislation, the Institute of Medicine will have a year to complete a study on the regional variegations in costs and quality of care and make recommendations to the health and human services Secretary.
The Secretary will then implement new payment rates taking into account the study’s recommendations. Some US$ 8 billion will be set aside by the legislation to implement those payment adjustments.
Some legislators observe that the proposal could help to reduce costs throughout the healthcare system because Medicare is such a huge part of medical coverage in the US. They also observe that private insurance will also be influenced by this overhauling if implemented.
The proposal also calls for a second study by the Institute of Medicine to address ways to reward value and quality care over quantity. Medicare now bases payments on the number of medical procedures. The second report is due by September 2011.
The proposed law also proposes way for “high quality, evidence-based, and patient centered care.” The health and human services Secretary has to report the recommendations of the studies to the Congress, which then will have to act by the end of 2010 to stop them from automatically going into effect.
However, there are other concerns on the proposed healthcare-overhauling.
Some observers see that there will be strong lobby against certain provisions of the reform bill. For example, the proposed reform is to hit the profits by big pharmaceutical companies what they get from the so called patented drugs. They do monopoly business which increase the price of a given ‘patented drug.” The reform aims to limit the protection for the patented drugs.
Also the reform may affect people’s right to privacy as it proposes maintaining of ‘electronic medical records’ of the people undergoing medical care.
How those records will be processed and maintained and who are to have access to those records that is a concern, as Dr. Lynn M. Mather, a Professor of Law and Political Science at the State University of New York at Buffalo observes while responding to a query from this writer. However, she is hopeful about the reform and supports it.
Another concern is that the development concerning the reform may impact on the upcoming mid-term Congressional election-just 15 months ahead.
However, President Obama seems to be optimistic with the reform, and now urges the lawmakers to finalize the healthcare by the end of this year.
The writer, a Dhaka-based human rights lawyer and researcher, is currently in the USA as a Humphrey Fellow. E-mail contact: udas1971@yahoo.com
*Published in the PROBE News Magazine (Dhaka, Bangladesh), July 31-August 06, 2009; link: http://www.probenewsmagazine.com/index.php?index=2&contentId=5403.
by Dr. Uttam Kumar Das writes from New York
“Pace of health care reform bogs down under weight of questions and costs” -- the front-page headline of The Buffalo News on July 26, 2009 portrays the present scenario of President Barrack Obama’s proposed healthcare reform initiative. It has generated a great debate throughout the country.
The draft legislation has been under review by a six-member Senate Committee in the office of the Senate Finance Committee chairman since June 17.
It is very unlikely that the US$ 1 trillion overhauling-plan will get an approval before the August recess of the Congress, a dateline set by the President earlier.
It is likely that the President has placed the healthcare reform at the top of his legislative priority. He is pushing for a measure that aims to rein in healthcare costs, improve care and expand coverage to most of the 46 million uninsured Americans.
As the Buffalo News reports, some 14,000 Americans are reportedly losing their health care every day. The majority of them are bankruptcies—62 percent— result from health care costs, along with 50 percent of mortgage foreclosures.
Some observer opines that the present healthcare system has become a “cancer” on US economy.
In 1970, the healthcare costs took up 7.2 percent of the economy, which is now 16 percent.
Americans spent an average of about US$ 6,500 per person on health care in 2006. It is by far the most in the world, and more than twice what Japanese and Germans spent.
However, as of July 28, the reform-agenda has been stalled in the Senate and House of Representatives. Both the houses are controlled by President’s fellow Democrats.
It has been hit by a deluge of criticism over the cost, scope and funding of the measure proposed.
The opposition Republicans are critical of the proposed plan, terming it as an expensive first step toward a government takeover of healthcare.
Some commentators see the struggle in the U.S. Congress over the healthcare reform as Democrats' "honeymoon" with Democratic President Obama coming to an end. Mr. Obama took the office of the President only six months back.
It is also commentated that if the Democratic-controlled Congress and the President could manage to iron out differences and enact healthcare reform by this year, Obama will be able to have fulfilled the most important promises of his 2008 election campaigns.
The proposed healthcare reform is termed as an essential to long-term viability for the US economy.
It is expected to reduce regional disparities in Medicare payments. Now, the Federal Medical Program insures around 44 million elderly and disabled Americans at an annual cost of US$ 450 billion. This is the one-fifth of the US healthcare spending.
As proposed in the reform legislation, the Institute of Medicine will have a year to complete a study on the regional variegations in costs and quality of care and make recommendations to the health and human services Secretary.
The Secretary will then implement new payment rates taking into account the study’s recommendations. Some US$ 8 billion will be set aside by the legislation to implement those payment adjustments.
Some legislators observe that the proposal could help to reduce costs throughout the healthcare system because Medicare is such a huge part of medical coverage in the US. They also observe that private insurance will also be influenced by this overhauling if implemented.
The proposal also calls for a second study by the Institute of Medicine to address ways to reward value and quality care over quantity. Medicare now bases payments on the number of medical procedures. The second report is due by September 2011.
The proposed law also proposes way for “high quality, evidence-based, and patient centered care.” The health and human services Secretary has to report the recommendations of the studies to the Congress, which then will have to act by the end of 2010 to stop them from automatically going into effect.
However, there are other concerns on the proposed healthcare-overhauling.
Some observers see that there will be strong lobby against certain provisions of the reform bill. For example, the proposed reform is to hit the profits by big pharmaceutical companies what they get from the so called patented drugs. They do monopoly business which increase the price of a given ‘patented drug.” The reform aims to limit the protection for the patented drugs.
Also the reform may affect people’s right to privacy as it proposes maintaining of ‘electronic medical records’ of the people undergoing medical care.
How those records will be processed and maintained and who are to have access to those records that is a concern, as Dr. Lynn M. Mather, a Professor of Law and Political Science at the State University of New York at Buffalo observes while responding to a query from this writer. However, she is hopeful about the reform and supports it.
Another concern is that the development concerning the reform may impact on the upcoming mid-term Congressional election-just 15 months ahead.
However, President Obama seems to be optimistic with the reform, and now urges the lawmakers to finalize the healthcare by the end of this year.
The writer, a Dhaka-based human rights lawyer and researcher, is currently in the USA as a Humphrey Fellow. E-mail contact: udas1971@yahoo.com
*Published in the PROBE News Magazine (Dhaka, Bangladesh), July 31-August 06, 2009; link: http://www.probenewsmagazine.com/index.php?index=2&contentId=5403.
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