Las Vegas Sun

March 18, 2024

Las Vegas Sol:

Immigration in brief: Obama meets with businesses; Border Patrol rejects changes

Immigration news from around the nation

U.S. Mexico Border

Ross D. Franklin / AP

This Oct. 2, 2012, file photo shows U.S. Border Patrol agents patrolling the border fence near Naco, Ariz.

President Barack Obama met today with business leaders, including representatives from McDonald's, Lockheed Martin and Marriott, to discuss immigration reform.

"So what I'm going to be talking to the business community about is how we can continue to amplify this issue in the coming weeks," Obama said, according to a transcript released by the White House. "There's no reason why we can't get this done before the end of the year. And I continue to be hopeful that with the leadership of many who are around this table, who represent hundreds of thousands of employees and billions of dollars of assets, who are important in their communities all across the country, them joining up with law enforcement, clergy, citizens to make the case that ultimately folks up on Capitol Hill will do the right thing."

Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., one of the prominent supporters of immigration reform in Congress, has announced he would no longer work with the National Immigrant Youth Alliance. Gutierrez, who was working with the alliance on the case of several young undocumented immigrants, known as the "Dream 30," who left the United States and then re-entered as a political statement, said the group surreptitiously recorded a conversation with the representative. Some members of the group were arrested Monday on Capitol Hill during a protest.

After coming under scrutiny for its use of force along the United States-Mexico border, Customs and Border Patrol announced it would not revise its policies. The U.S. Office of Inspector General for the Homeland Security Department issued a report on CPB's use of force earlier this year, detailing some incidents where border patrol shot and killed people on the Mexican side of the border. The agency contends that people throw rocks at officers from the Mexican side, and CPB only fires in self-defense. According to the Associated Press, CPB announced today it would not accept the recommendations for changes in agency policy, contending the suggestions were "too restrictive."

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