The promise to build a wall and secure the southern border of the United States was perhaps President Donald Trump’s most well-known campaign pledge. On January 25, 2017, he signed two executive orders related to immigration. Executive Order No. 3 called for the “immediate construction of a physical wall,” the “expedited determinations of apprehended individuals’ claims of eligibility to remain in the United States,” and the prompt removal of individuals “whose legal claims to remain in the United States have been lawfully rejected.” Executive Order No, 4 called for the prioritization for deportation of undocumented immigrants with criminal convictions or who have been charged with a crime and the hiring of 10,000 additional Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, along with other provisions. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary John Kelly signed a memorandum on February 20, 2017, to implement the two executive orders.
President Trump Must Submit Paris Climate Agreement to the Senate
On November 14, President Obama made the following remarks in a press conference before his final foreign trip. When asked about legal constraints placed on him by Congress (specifically with respect to prisoners housed at Guantanamo Bay and his belief that the limitations were unconstitutional), he said, “One of the things you discover about being […]
Lame-Duck Session, 114th Congress: The Victors, the Vanquished, and the Un-Inaugurated
For anyone unfamiliar with the patois of politics, the term “lame duck” may seem like a bit of an odd duck, rhetorically speaking. As defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the more common understanding of this phrase is “an elected official or group continuing to hold political office during the period between the election and the […]
SIGAR: U.S. Facilitated Afghan Corruption, Reacted Slowly
The first in a series of “lessons learned” reports released in September 2016 by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) John Sopko has indicated that the U.S. introduced billions of dollars of aid into a corrupt system, sometimes benefiting militia members and warlords. According to the report, in some instances, U.S. aid […]
Failure of PEPFAR in Africa: Abstain from Abstinence
The President’s Emergency Plan For Aids Relief (PEPFAR) is an initiative started by then-President George W. Bush in 2003. PEPFAR was design to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa by providing antiretroviral treatments to people in resource-limited settings. According to a February 14, 2013 Foreign Policy article, the program is estimated to have saved million of lives in the last ten years. However, some parts of the program have been heavily criticized for attempting to impose an outside set of values on communities that are significantly different culturally.
How to Stop the Death Spiral in Puerto Rico
In late June, 2015, Puerto Rico Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla said that the island could not meet its obligations to pay off $72 billion in the combined debt of the territorial government and municipalities. In November 2015, the U.S. Treasury Department agreed that the territory was insolvent. Garcia Padilla then called the situation a “death spiral” during a hearing on December 1, 2015.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership and Intellectual Property
On October 5, 2015, negotiations for the TPPA concluded and a summary of the 30 chapters of the agreement was released. Chapter 18 of the agreement specifically discusses the rights and responsibilities of each TPP member nation in protecting IP. The 12 TPPA member nations are Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States, and Vietnam.
Passage of TPA is a Win for All
On June 24, 2015, the Senate followed the House’s lead and voted 60-38 in favor of H.R. 2146, which contained the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act (TPA). After President Obama signed the bill into law on June 29, 2015, he can now “fast track” trade deals to Congress for approval by a simple majority in both chambers. This process assures trading partners that agreements cannot be amended once a deal has been consummated.
The TPA Debate: Fears & Facts about “Fast-Track”
When Chicken Little said “The sky is falling!” and convinced his barnyard brethren of the same, the facts notwithstanding, he practically invented fear-mongering. Trade liberalization opponents are engaged in their own version of spreading false and misleading information by claiming that so-called “fast track” legislation is fraught with end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it perils. Just as the falling acorn […]
Trade Agreements Protect IP Abroad
The U.S. Trade Representative has been working on two important trade agreements, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), and the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP). Each of the agreements provides opportunities for the U.S. to expand its reach into the global market, while protecting and promoting U.S. manufactured goods overseas. The agreements also present an opportunity […]