Halloween is a notable day for Julie Myers.
On Halloween, 2008, the AP reported a “federal law enforcement official” said Barack Obama’s aunt was living in the United States illegally. Tim Dickinson at Rolling Stone questioned whether ICE Assistant Secretary Julie Myers may have been the source of the unauthorized leak. On November 5, 2008, the day after Barack Obama won the Presidential election, Ms. Myers announced her resignation.
Obama’s “Auntie Zeituni” came to the U.S. legally on a temporary visa in 2000 to join a son who had been accepted at a college in Boston. She applied for political asylum from war torn Kenya. She stayed in legal pending status until a judge turned down her application for asylum in 2004. Auntie Zeituni is working with an Immigration lawyer and continues to fight her deportation order (a civil violation). She resides in a Federally funded apartment leased by a relative living here legally.
When the news of Aunti Zeituni´s immigration status was leaked, ICE acknowledged the leak came from one of their officials and their officials are “prohibited from commenting on any individual’s status or the status of any case.”
The official who leaked this information purposely broke this Federal law in order to influence and corrupt the National Election. House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers has written to Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff requesting an immediate investigation of the leak, which he deemed "deplorable" and said "was not the first leak of law enforcement information apparently designed to influence the Presidential Election."
Myers has been a controversial figure since the day that President Bush nominated her. She was widely criticized as being a CRONY hire, being the daughter of former Air Force Gen. Richard Myers and the wife of Chertoff´s chief of staff and possessing next to no immigration or customs experience.
According to the Washington Post:
More recently, Myers was accused by Democrats of misleading Congress after photographs emerged of Myers at a 2007 Halloween office party honoring a white employee dressed as an escaped prisoner with dreadlocks and makeup that made him look African American or Hispanic. ICE runs the nation's 33,000-bed immigration detention system. Myers subsequently apologized for leaving "a negative impression" of ICE's respect for the people it detains.
Myers has presided over a dramatic increase in enforcement activities (ICE Raids, including Postville, Laurel) and spending at the $5 billion agency, setting records for three fiscal years in arrests of illegal immigrants with criminal records and those violating administrative deportation orders. Actual deportations also soared to record levels during her tenure.
ICE helped drive the political debate over immigration. However, its heavily publicized raids also drew condemnations from civil liberties and immigrant advocacy groups, which say ICE violated humanitarian standards and trampled on due process rights by using criminal-style tactics and charges in massive roundups of workers. Myers also oversaw a burgeoning detention system whose growth has led to noncriminal immigrant detainees often being medically neglected.
On Halloween, 2008, the AP reported a “federal law enforcement official” said Barack Obama’s aunt was living in the United States illegally. Tim Dickinson at Rolling Stone questioned whether ICE Assistant Secretary Julie Myers may have been the source of the unauthorized leak. On November 5, 2008, the day after Barack Obama won the Presidential election, Ms. Myers announced her resignation.
Obama’s “Auntie Zeituni” came to the U.S. legally on a temporary visa in 2000 to join a son who had been accepted at a college in Boston. She applied for political asylum from war torn Kenya. She stayed in legal pending status until a judge turned down her application for asylum in 2004. Auntie Zeituni is working with an Immigration lawyer and continues to fight her deportation order (a civil violation). She resides in a Federally funded apartment leased by a relative living here legally.
When the news of Aunti Zeituni´s immigration status was leaked, ICE acknowledged the leak came from one of their officials and their officials are “prohibited from commenting on any individual’s status or the status of any case.”
The official who leaked this information purposely broke this Federal law in order to influence and corrupt the National Election. House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers has written to Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff requesting an immediate investigation of the leak, which he deemed "deplorable" and said "was not the first leak of law enforcement information apparently designed to influence the Presidential Election."
Myers has been a controversial figure since the day that President Bush nominated her. She was widely criticized as being a CRONY hire, being the daughter of former Air Force Gen. Richard Myers and the wife of Chertoff´s chief of staff and possessing next to no immigration or customs experience.
According to the Washington Post:
More recently, Myers was accused by Democrats of misleading Congress after photographs emerged of Myers at a 2007 Halloween office party honoring a white employee dressed as an escaped prisoner with dreadlocks and makeup that made him look African American or Hispanic. ICE runs the nation's 33,000-bed immigration detention system. Myers subsequently apologized for leaving "a negative impression" of ICE's respect for the people it detains.
Myers has presided over a dramatic increase in enforcement activities (ICE Raids, including Postville, Laurel) and spending at the $5 billion agency, setting records for three fiscal years in arrests of illegal immigrants with criminal records and those violating administrative deportation orders. Actual deportations also soared to record levels during her tenure.
ICE helped drive the political debate over immigration. However, its heavily publicized raids also drew condemnations from civil liberties and immigrant advocacy groups, which say ICE violated humanitarian standards and trampled on due process rights by using criminal-style tactics and charges in massive roundups of workers. Myers also oversaw a burgeoning detention system whose growth has led to noncriminal immigrant detainees often being medically neglected.
In light of Myers being unqualified for the job, poor performance and breaking the law, it is good Conyers is pursuing the investigation. Additionally, it is also good the Obama administration will be reviewing the performance of every agency.
As CNN.com reports:
The head of President-elect Barack Obama's transition team said Sunday that the incoming administration is conducting an extensive review of President Bush's executive orders.."I would say that as a candidate, Sen. Obama said that he wanted all the Bush executive orders reviewed and decide which ones should be kept and which ones should be repealed and which ones should be amended, and that process is going on. It's been undertaken," ..he pointed out that there is a lot the president can do without waiting for Congress, and voters can expect to see Obama do so to try and restore "a sense that the country is working on behalf of the common good." "I think that we're looking at -- again, in virtually every agency -- to see where we can move forward..
I hope they further investigate ICE and check into the Crony Owned private prisons for abuses in no bid contracts and the poor treatment of detainees, particularly ICE awarding no bid contracts to the GEO Group: The GEO Group is an international corporation that operates prisons around the country and is frequently in the news for its abuse of prisoners in its care resulting in many preventable deaths. Its operations in Texas have been sharply criticized over poor conditions and the treatment of some of its prisoners.
The GEO Group owns and operates the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, WA, under contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the largest and primary investigative wing of the United States Department of Homeland Security.
GEO Group is a Major Contributor to the RNC, Bush and McCain campaigns.
The Cronyism and Abuses MUST END!!
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