Sunday, October 21, 2007

Mukasey and immigration

Adam Francoeur of Immigration Equality explains why the process of selecting the Attorney General deserves special scrutiny by immigrant advocates:

1- the Department of Justice sets the tone (legally and figuratively) in protecting the rights of citizens and immigrants, but explicitly the civil rights and due process rights of individuals in the U.S. These rights have eroded under the previous two Attorney Generals and immigrants are often the first to lose these rights.

2- much of the immigration process, including Immigration Judges, the Board of Immigration Appeals, and ultimately the Attorney General, create immigration policy and precedent and these confirmation hearings give direct insight into the values an Attorney General would bring to the job. And finally

3- homoterrorism. That’s right, the U.S. government has waged war on gays under the cover of the threat of terrorism, specifically within U.S. immigration policy in the wake of 9-11 and has used the threat of terrorism to track, threaten, and deport immigrants not to mention used anti-terror language as a red-herring to deny rights to LGBT immigrants.

As others have pointed out, any nominee for AG who can’t admit that waterboarding is torture should not be charged with managing the Department of Justice. If this rules out anyone George Bush is likely to nominate, so be it.

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