Readout of White House and Department of Homeland Security Officials’ Meeting with Law Enforcement on Comprehensive Immigration Reform

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

WASHINGTON, DC – White House Domestic Policy Council (DPC) Director Cecilia Muñoz, Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) Janet Napolitano, Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Alan Bersin and Acting Associate Attorney General Tony West met with law enforcement officials from across the country today at the White House’s Eisenhower Executive Office Building to discuss the need for commonsense reform to fix our nation’s broken immigration system. DPC Director Muñoz outlined the principles at the heart of the President’s proposal: continuing to strengthen border security, cracking down on employers that hire undocumented workers, creating a pathway to earned citizenship, and streamlining our legal immigration system. Secretary Napolitano highlighted the Department’s work with local law enforcement to enforce immigration laws while securing our borders, and noted that in order to continue making progress, we need to modernize our immigration laws.

Secretary Napolitano also highlighted the significant progress that has been made as the Administration has dedicated historic levels of personnel, technology, and resources to the Southwest border over the last four years, and undertaken an unprecedented effort to transform our nation's immigration enforcement systems into one that focuses on public safety, border security, and the integrity of the immigration system. Attempts to cross the border illegally totaled nearly 365,000 nationwide in FY 2012, representing a nearly 50 percent decrease since FY 2008 and a 78 percent decrease from their peak in FY 2000; and that from FY 2009 to 2012, CBP and ICE seized 71 percent more currency, 39 percent more drugs, and 189 percent more weapons along the Southwest border as compared to FY 2005 to 2008.

The Secretary made it clear that commonsense immigration reform is the single best step we can take to continue to enhance border security, enabling our officers and agents along the border to spend the bulk of their time focused on public safety and national security threats. Law enforcement officials agreed that immigration reform will strengthen trust between communities and law enforcement agencies, and allow officers to focus resources on public safety. 

Participants in today’s meeting included: Los Angeles County, Calif. Sheriff Leroy Baca; former New York Police Department/Los Angeles Police Department Chief of Police Bill Bratton; Calhoun County, Ala. Sheriff Larry Amerson; Oakwood, Ohio Chief of Police Alex Bebris; Loudoun County, Va. Sheriff Michael L. Chapman; Harris County, Texas Sheriff Adrian Garcia; Fremont, Calif. Police Chief and International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) President Craig Steckler; Tuscaloosa County, Ala. Sheriff Edmund Sexton; Cambridge, Mass. Police Department Commissioner Robert Haas; Vermont State Police Director Thomas L’Esperance; Montgomery County, Md. Chief of Police Thomas Manger; Cook County, Ill. Homeland  Security Executive Director Michael Masters; Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority Superintendent-in-Chief Joseph O’Connor; Arlington County, Va. Chief of Police Douglas Scott; Utah Department of Public Safety Deputy Commissioner Keith Squires; IACP Director of the Research Division John Firman; Police Executive Research Forum Chief of Staff Andrea Luna; and Prince George's County, Md. Assistant Chief of Police Kevin Davis.

On Feb. 4-5, Secretary Napolitano traveled to San Diego, California and Clint and El Paso, Texas to inspect border security operations at the Southwest border, meet with state and local stakeholders, and discuss the Department’s on-going efforts to secure the border while facilitating lawful travel and trade. 

For more information on the President’s proposal and how it would help officers and agents along the border better focus on combating public safety and national security threats by continuing to build upon the progress already made – including by investing in ports of entry, and making it harder for transnational criminal organizations to operate, click HERE. For more information on the Department of Homeland Security visit www.DHS.gov.

President Obama urges Congress to act to avoid a series of harmful and automatic cuts—called a sequester—from going into effect that would hurt our economy and the middle class and threaten thousands of American jobs.

Here's quick glimpse at what happened this week on WhiteHouse.gov.

Vice President Biden's Chief of Staff Bruce Reed sat down with us to give us a quick update on the work the President and Vice President have been doing since the President released his plan to reduce gun violence.

view all related blog posts

View the original article here

Remarks by the President Before Meeting with Law Enforcement Officials

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

Roosevelt Room

11:28 A.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT:  Well, Vice President Biden and I just want to thank the police chiefs and sheriffs who are here today representing law enforcement officials all across the country who obviously share our deep concern about issues of gun safety and how we can protect our communities and keep our kids safe.

A couple of weeks ago, I appeared along with Joe to present the administration's ideas in terms of steps that we have to take.  And I issued a number of executive actions that should be taken unilaterally in order to improve our collection of data to make sure that we're coordinating more effectively with state and local governments, and to do everything that we could to improve the issue of gun safety and to make our communities safer.

But, as we've indicated before, the only way that we're going to be able to do everything that needs to be done is with the cooperation of Congress.  And that means passing serious laws that restrict the access and availability of assault weapons and magazine clips that aren't necessary for hunters and sportsmen and those responsible gun owners who are out there.  It means that we are serious about universal background checks.  It means that we take seriously issues mental health and school safety.

We recognize that this is an issue that elicits a lot of passion all across the country.  And Joe and my Cabinet members who have been involved in this have been on a listening session over the last several months.  No group is more important for us to listen to than our law enforcement officials.  They are where the rubber hits the road.

And so I welcome this opportunity to work with them; to hear their views in terms of what will make the biggest difference to prevent something like Newtown or Oak Creek from happening again.  But many of them also recognize that it's not only the high-profile mass shootings that are of concern here, it's also what happens on a day-in-day-out basis in places like Chicago or Philadelphia, where young people are victims of gun violence every single day.  That’s why part of the conversation that we're going to be having today relates not only to the issue of new laws or better enforcement of our gun laws, it also means what are we doing to make sure that we've got the strongest possible law enforcement teams on the ground?  What are we doing to hire more cops?  What are we doing to make sure that they're getting the training that they need?  What are we doing to make sure our sheriff's offices in rural counties have access to some of the resources that some of the big cities do in order to deal with some of these emergencies? 

So I'm looking forward to a robust conversation.  I know that this is not a shy group, mainly because they're dealing with life-and-death situations every single day.  But I'm very grateful to them for their participation.  This is a representative group.  It comes from a wide cross-section of communities across the country.  And hopefully, if law enforcement officials who are dealing with this stuff every single day can come to some basic consensus in terms of steps that we need to take, Congress is going to be paying attention to them and we'll be able to make progress.

All right?  Thank you very much, everybody. 

END               
11:32 A.M. EST

On Thursday, January 31 at 1:00 p.m. ET, Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council Cecilia Muñoz will join the latest "Fireside Hangout" for a conversation about immigration reform.

President Obama speak from Las Vegas about creating a fair and effective immigration system that lives up to our heritage as a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants.

President Obama announced today that he has approved a new round of humanitarian assistance, an additional $155 million to provide for the urgent and pressing needs of civilians in Syria and refugees forced to flee the violence of the Assad regime. This brings America’s contribution to date to $365 million, making the United States the largest single donor of humanitarian assistance to the Syrian people.

view all related blog posts

View the original article here

Former Top Military Officials Back Hagel’s Defense Secretary Bid

Chuck Hagel received two new high profile endorsements on Sunday for his bid to be the next Secretary of Defense. Retired Air Force General Michael Hayden and retired Army General Stanley McChrystal said on CNN’s State of the Union that Hagel is a good choice to take over for outgoing Pentagon chief Leon Panetta.

Hayden, former National Security Agency head during the Bush administration and CIA Director in both the Bush and Obama administrations, said Hagel is someone “you could talk to” and “have an honest dialogue” with. When host Candy Crowley asked the former generals if they see “any red flags” that would disqualify Hagel, McChrystal, most recently the top allied commander in Afghanistan, said “no” while Hayden said, “not at all.”

CROWLEY: From what you know of Chuck Hagel…what sort of reception would he get from the military.

HAYDEN: I think he will be fine. I know Senator Hagel. He was on my oversight committee when I was in the intelligence community. He was a member, and this is not a universal condition, he was a member that you could talk to, have an honest dialogue, not necessarily disagree but on a personal basis, have a candid exchange of views. You could always speak with him and frankly given my time in uniform, that’s a tremendous attribute. So I actually think this will work out well.

Watch the clip:

The “neocon smear machine” and other well-financed right-wing groups are trying to derail Hagel’s Defense Secretary bid but the former Republican senator from Nebraska has received widespread, bipartisan support from former top foreign affairs and defense officials in recent weeks and key senators have said they would vote to confirm Hagel.

View the original article here