The Washington Post is raising another instance where the Obama Administration appears to be withholding information on immigration for political purposes — further contradicting President Obama’s pledge to be the most transparent Administration is history. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection releases its annual statistics on October 10th before the elections. Someone in the Administration then ordered the statistics taken down in what the Post is calling a move that seemed to confirm the view of “the Obama administration playing politics with public information.” Notably, the Post however only wrote about the story today so any such intention worked to keep the information out of the public debate. There is a reason why these statistics would be particularly bothersome before an election.
The Administration previously admitted that it would not discuss its plans for unilateral immigration action until after voters had gone home from the polls.
The data that was taken down within hours contained one potentially negative piece of information for the Administration: Most of the people the Border Patrol stopped from sneaking into the country last year were from countries other than Mexico. That would support the view that the border has become a magnet due to the porous protection and the draw of stories promising plans for amnesty. Regardless of the reason, such information should be released to the public — particularly before an election where immigration was a prominent issue.
The Administration says that it merely wants to release all data as part of a comprehensive disclosure and that internal administrative issues have delayed the released until after the election.
Once again, I am less concerned with the merits of the immigration debate than I am about the active effort to prevent voters from learning about the data or the plans for immigration policies. There seems a growing cynicism over the goals transparency in government — an open dismissal of any obligation to allow voters to make their own decisions based on data of this kind. I felt the same way about such efforts during the Bush Administration. While we cannot always expect honest government, we can at least demand open government as citizens. That was one of the most redeeming issues upon which President Obama ran as a new candidate. It seems a long time ago.
Source: Washington Post
i read a comment from some attorney above who was offended because someone thinks that the president does not love this country . That is a very interesting comment , I usually see those kinds of comments from Muslims if someone says something that they do not like . As far as I’m concerned , love is not enough to prevent harming your country . Love has to be combined with psychological sophistication , otherwise you can even become the President of the USA (by getting votes of people like the few here on this blog or the Obama voters who were interviewed by Howard Stern ), and still show extremely primitive ways to deal with reality, and still have 40% approval from the people .
R2D2, I’ve learned there are Democrats who approve the President no matter what. Not just this President, but all Democratic Presidents. Have an adult beverage.
Its not my first time to pay a quick visit this site, i am browsing this website dailly and get nice information from here everyday.
happypappies – so true. And I’m sorry for what you and your husband are going through.
Anyone who clamors for single payor should really look at what single payor did to the veterans, and learn.
We owe a huge debt of gratitude to our soldiers and vets. They should be treated with dignity and respect, not left to languish without care.
Karen – want single payer? Look at the mess the NHS has made in the UK.
Karen doesn’t want single payer Paul unless you are being facetious as usual 🙂
Thank you Karen and I think you have shown remarkable restraint regarding the comments made on the other thread. Truly I meant no disrespect to Mike Appleton but he is just wrong. I am an old woman and probably older than he and my Husband is 66 years old which qualifies him for a Senior Citizen anywhere. He was a Navy Seal and did Recon with the Marines so I will not let him wait with some stupid single payer system. Fully Socialist Systems for large counties are infeasible and anyone who knows anything at all about economics can figure that out. No doctor is going to sacrifice his life for a pittance. We need machinery and drugs which is why the States are fighting back and the Democrats can’t figure it out because they can’t think ahead. That is not to say the Conservative Democrats. I am referring to Liberal Democrats wanting a free ride. This is just my opinion. Not everyone can pay. I realize that. But the Middle class should not be saddled with a huge mandate they can’t deal with on their income tax
“Any half-informed person knows that the 1% crowd profits from illegal immigration.”
Half-informed, ala Nancy Cordes from CBS? Is there any hope these folks will become “fully-informed”?
http://thefederalist.com/2014/11/07/cbs-nancy-cordes-perfectly-demonstrates-media-bias-problems/?utm_source=The+Federalist+List&utm_campaign=ecc9472eb7-RSS_DAILY_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_cfcb868ceb-ecc9472eb7-79248369
Personally I don’t like to believe anyone is a ‘loyal servant of the Wall Street plutocrats, he always has been such and always will be. Just wait and see him get a high paying job with the Vampire Squid.’
I think that is a childish euphemism for what Carlyle really thinks of the President. Be that as it may I would like to state for the record, and I swore I would not do this, but I find I must. I am paying over two thousand dollars a month to keep my Husband at the Veterans Home and I also pay 149.00 a month Social Security that I retained on him because of the lengthy waiting lists that Mr. Appleton seems to think are not a big problem and haven’t been. Well, I beg to disagree with that. The clinics all around the nation are and have been lined up with Veterans that are not being cared for the way they should be. They have to wait. And most don’t have options like my husband does. They went through the system and counted on their Veterans Benefits instead of any Civilian Benefit. Because My Husband was sick, even with Medicare advantage, I have doctor and hospital bills in excess of 4 thousand dollars to pay off this year. Now, because I am smart, and understand how to work the system, I have itemized these bills and will take them to the VA and they will Pay for what I have been able to pay for and I will dump that back into the system. I have been doing it that way for years now. That works fine for me, but what about the others that don’t have options like I do. I am lucky. I am smart. I know how to work the system 🙂