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eyes on the U.S.

U.S. Immigration Reform - Five Things To Watch

POLITICO, WASHINGTON POST, CNN (USA)

Worldcrunch

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama will outline his vision for comprehensive immigration reform on Tuesday, a day after a bipartisan group of U.S. senators outlined a proposal that could begin to move groundbreaking legislation forward on an issue that has long divided Americans. A key question is whether the U.S. will find a new path toward moving an estimated 11 million undocumented workers to legal status, and eventually to citizenship.

Here are five things to watch as the debate moves forward:

1. ELECTORAL REALITIES - Both parties are well aware that the number of registered Latinos has increased by 26% in the past four years to 12.2 million, or 8.7% of all voters. As CNN notes, this means this demographic will only increase its political power. Republicans as much as Democrats must be attentive to issues that matter to Latinos – and comprehensive reform of the way the United States deals with both legal and undocumented immigrants is one that definitely matters.

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Photo - White House/Pete Souza

2. PRESIDENTIAL LEGACY - Obama owes his 2012 reelection, at least in part, to strong support from Latino voters, who had also come out for him four years earlier. Having taken a back seat in his first term to health reform and other major legislation, the President hopes to make immigration reform one of his signature accomplishments of the second term. He will unveil his vision in a much-anticipated speech later Tuesday in Las Vegas, though the President isn't expected at this time to put forth specific legislation, following the initial proposal by the bipartisan "Gang of Eight" from the Senate.

3. SAFETY FIRST - The four-page Senate proposal unveiled on Monday stated a number of ambitious objectives, including finding a way for some 11 million undocumented workers to eventually move toward citizenship. But as the Washington Post notes, any such changes are "contingent" on a recommendation from a still-to-be established commission charged with ensuring that America's borders are secure.

4. THE "A" WORD - The signature objective in the reform, to move those currently living in the United States toward legal status, faces stiff opposition from conservative Republicans, who say this amounts to "amnesty" – a concept they say encourages others to follow the undocumented path in the future. "When you legalize those who are in the country illegally, it costs taxpayers millions of dollars, costs American workers thousands of jobs and encourages more illegal immigration," said Republican Congressman Lamar Smith of Texas, who serves on the immigration subcommittee in the House. "By granting amnesty, the Senate proposal actually compounds the problem by encouraging more illegal immigration."

On the one hand, it is a question of verbiage, as Americans generally don't like the concept of granting amnesty to those who have done something illegal. On the other hand, there are two fundamentally opposing views on how to solve a problem that is very real – the presence of millions of undocumented people inside the U.S.

5. 2016 - Among the four Republicans behind the bipartisan proposal, there is John McCain, the Arizona senator who lost to Obama four years ago. But as Politico notes, just as importantly, there is Marco Rubio, a Cuban-American of Florida, widely considered among the top candidates to bring the White House back to the GOP in 2016. So once again, eyes on the policy – but eyes on the politics as well.

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Economy

Lex Tusk? How Poland’s Controversial "Russian Influence" Law Will Subvert Democracy

The new “lex Tusk” includes language about companies and their management. But is this likely to be a fair investigation into breaking sanctions on Russia, or a political witch-hunt in the business sphere?

Photo of President of the Republic of Poland Andrzej Duda

Polish President Andrzej Duda

Piotr Miaczynski, Leszek Kostrzewski

-Analysis-

WARSAW — Poland’s new Commission for investigating Russian influence, which President Andrzej Duda signed into law on Monday, will be able to summon representatives of any company for inquiry. It has sparked a major controversy in Polish politics, as political opponents of the government warn that the Commission has been given near absolute power to investigate and punish any citizen, business or organization.

And opposition politicians are expected to be high on the list of would-be suspects, starting with Donald Tusk, who is challenging the ruling PiS government to return to the presidency next fall. For that reason, it has been sardonically dubbed: Lex Tusk.

University of Warsaw law professor Michal Romanowski notes that the interests of any firm can be considered favorable to Russia. “These are instruments which the likes of Putin and Orban would not be ashamed of," Romanowski said.

The law on the Commission for examining Russian influences has "atomic" prerogatives sewn into it. Nine members of the Commission with the rank of secretary of state will be able to summon virtually anyone, with the powers of severe punishment.

Under the new law, these Commissioners will become arbiters of nearly absolute power, and will be able to use the resources of nearly any organ of the state, including the secret services, in order to demand access to every available document. They will be able to prosecute people for acts which were not prohibited at the time they were committed.

Their prerogatives are broader than that of the President or the Prime Minister, wider than those of any court. And there is virtually no oversight over their actions.

Nobody can feel safe. This includes companies, their management, lawyers, journalists, and trade unionists.

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