Broken borders? Forget Mexico. Check out lines, CPB staff at Miami International Airport

@MarcACAputo

For a picture of the nation’s border struggles, look at the long lines and understaffed international-passenger checkpoints at Miami International Airport.

Up to 1,000 passengers in a single day have missed connecting flights at the airport — the busiest in the nation for international flights — because they’re held up at the Customs and Border Protection facility.

And the problem could get even worse next month because of looming federal budget cuts, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Wednesday after visiting the airport.

“Everything we are trying to do here — the additional staffing, overtime, technology…. will come to a screeching halt,” Napolitano said.

Rick Scott welcomes Janet Napolitano on MIA visit: Get Customs to do a better job

@MarcACaputo

Following up a letter he sent to Janet Napolitano in September, Gov. Rick Scott welcomes the Homeland Security chief to Miami International Airport with the same request: Please adequately staff the airport with the proper number of customs officials.

To recap: MIA built a new facility for Customs and Border Patrol to process international passengers. But Napolitano's agency hasn't adequately staffed it, according to Scott and local officials.

"CBP has not been able to meet the necessary staffing numbers in the new facility. As a result, customers, often numbering well over 1,000 daily, and their baggage are misconnected and must be re-booked on later flights, many leaving the next day," Scott wrote in September and today.

Napolitano has been responsive to Scott in one regard: She's showing up today at the airport.

Here's his letter last year. And here's this one Download Letter

Read more here: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2012/09/rick-scott-to-janet-napolitano-come-to-miami-lack-of-customs-agents-could-damage-floridas-image.html#storylink=cpy

Dept. of Make Nice: Presient Obama calls Sens. Rubio, McCain and Graham

The (kabuki-like?) tensions between President Obama and Sen. Marco Rubio over immigration reform started to abate Tuesday afternoon when the commander in chief called the Florida Republican as well as Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain.

Rubio over the weekend bashed the White House for, in his view, leaking draft immigration-reform legislation to USA Today. The White House insisted it didn't. The Herald published the text of the legislation in this story which has the background over the back and forth.

Here's the White House statement:

This afternoon, the President placed calls to Senator Graham, Senator McCain, and Senator Rubio to discuss their shared commitment to bipartisan, commonsense immigration reform and to commend the Senators for the bipartisan progress that continues to be made by the Gang of 8 on this important issue. During the calls, which build on conversations that have taken place at the staff level, the President reiterated that he remains supportive of the effort underway in Congress, and that he hopes that they can produce a bill as soon as possible that reflects shared core principles on reform. The President has made clear that he believes commonsense reform needs to include strengthening border security, creating an earned path to citizenship, holding employers accountable, and streamlining legal immigration. As the President made clear when he met with Democratic Senators involved in the process last week, that while he is pleased with the progress and supportive of the effort to date, he is prepared to submit his own legislation if Congress fails to act.  He thanked the Senators for their leadership, and made clear that he and his staff look forward to continuing to work together with their teams to achieve needed reform.

The President did not speak with Senator Flake, who is traveling, but he looks forward to discussing the issue with him in the near future.

President Obama's immigration bills fray nerves but show similarities with Marco Rubio

President Obama’s administration drafted legislation this month that could give undocumented immigrants a pathway to citizenship in eight years, require employers to check workers’ immigration status and increase penalties for those who break immigration law.

The ideas appear in three separate draft bills, obtained Monday by The Miami Herald, that closely resemble many of the reforms advanced in 2011 by Obama and, more recently, by Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.

Both Rubio and Obama, for instance, support special pathways to residency for those students and soldiers who were brought illegally to this country as children. In the White House draft legislation, the proposal closely resembles what’s known as the DREAM Act.

But in a sign of the politically fragile talks over immigration reform, Rubio reacted with a measure of fury Saturday when the proposals were first reported by USA Today.

“The President’s bill repeats the failures of past legislation,” the statement continued. “It fails to follow through on previously broken promises to secure our borders, creates a special pathway that puts those who broke our immigration laws at an advantage over those who chose to do things the right way and come here legally.”

Marco Rubio trashes President Obama's immigration plan as DOA

That didn't take long. A few hours after President Obama proposed an immigration plan, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio trashed it.

How much of this is real, and how much political posturing?

The press release:

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) issued the following statement regarding new details about President Obama’s immigration plan, as first reported by USA Today.

“It’s a mistake for the White House to draft immigration legislation without seeking input from Republican members of Congress. President Obama’s leaked immigration proposal is disappointing to those of us working on a serious solution. The President’s bill repeats the failures of past legislation. It fails to follow through on previously broken promises to secure our borders, creates a special pathway that puts those who broke our immigration laws at an advantage over those who chose to do things the right way and come here legally, and does nothing to address guest workers or future flow, which serious immigration experts agree is critical to preventing future influxes of illegal immigrants.

“Much like the President’s self-described ‘stop gap’ Deferred Action measure last year, this legislation is half-baked and seriously flawed. It would actually make our immigration problems worse, and would further undermine the American people’s confidence in Washington’s ability to enforce our immigration laws and reform our broken immigration system.

“If actually proposed, the President’s bill would be dead on arrival in Congress, leaving us with unsecured borders and a broken legal immigration system for years to come.”

Obama's new immigration plan: 8-year pathway to permanent residency for the undocumented

President Obama won bipartisan praise for his tone on immigration during his State of the Union speech. Now he's putting some of those ideas on paper. So far, it's the most-specific comprehensive-immigration reform plan proposed. It fills in details of his May 2011 plan, which Florida Sen. Marco Rubio adopted in large part.

USA Today:

A draft of a White House immigration proposal obtained by USA TODAY would allow illegal immigrants to become legal permanent residents within eight years.

The plan also would provide for more security funding and require business owners to check the immigration status of new hires within four years. In addition, the nation's 11 million illegal immigrants could apply for a newly created "Lawful Prospective Immigrant" visa, under the bill being written by the White House.....

According to the White House draft, people would need to pass a criminal background check, submit biometric information and pay fees to qualify for the new visa. If approved, they would be allowed to legally reside in the U.S., work and leave the country for short periods of time.

Illegal immigrants would be disqualified from the program if they were convicted of a crime that led to a prison term of at least one year, three or more different crimes that resulted in a total of 90 days in jail, or if they committed any offense abroad that "if committed in the United States would render the alien inadmissible or removable from the United States."

More here

DC's Rubio round-robin: Jay Carney whacks Marco Rubio who whacks Janet Napolitano

@MarcACaputo

Another busy day for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.

Just hours after his State of the Union rebuttal swamped Twitter late Tuesday, Rubio did the media rounds Wednesday morning, poked fun at himself and slipped in some policy. Then White House spokesman Jay Carney criticized him. And then he criticized Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano during an afternoon hearing.

In another attack on Marco Rubio, Univision worker takes partisan Facebook whacks at "loser" Republican

A top assistant to an Univision news boss trashed Sen. Marco Rubio on the Facebook page of the Republican's aide, raising new questions about possible pro-Democratic, anti-Rubio bias inside the powerful Spanish-language network's Doral headquarters.

The latest incident began Wednesday night after Rubio's spokesman, Alex Burgos, announced the high-profile Florida senator would give the GOP's first-ever bilingual rebuttal to President Obama's State of the Union speech.

That led Univision employee Angelica Artiles to let loose a string of partisan criticisms.

"Oh. wow, the loser is going to speak after our President," Artiles wrote on spokesman Alex Burgos' Facebook page at 9:33 p.m. Wednesday. "Anything to get publicity. Ask him to do us a favor and stay home that night."

Sentiments like that reflect the prevailing political feeling among Univision's higher ups at its Doral headquarters, Univision insiders have told The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald for more than a year. Artiles is executive assistant to Daniel Coronell, Univision's vice president of news.

The network is owned by a major Democratic donor who has accused Rubio and other Republicans of having an "anti-Hispanic" stand on immigration that's "despicable."

In August, someone used Univision's official Facebook account to attack Rubio during the Republican National Convention in Tampa.

Marco Rubio conquers Mt. Rushbo

Yesterday, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh was in a typical lather about the Gang of Eight's new immigration pla, saying repeatedly that it amounts to failed policy.

And he used that most-hated of words to many conservatives: "Amnesty." Limbaugh said it over and over again.

"We've done this before. We've done amnesty before," he said. "This immigration bill that everybody's touting on TV today is essentially the Bush immigration bill that was beat back in 2007."

Limbaugh continued to bash the plan today before Republican Sen. Marco Rubio came on the show.

Conservatives, liberals and reporters were atwitter with what would happen when the Florida senator came on. Turns out, not much. No sparks. No tough question. No mention of the A word.

By the end of the interview, Rubio had Limbaugh eating out of his hand. Just as Rubio did with Mark Levin, Lou Dobbs, Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity and others. All have bashed "amnesty" and President Obama's plans for it. But all of them loved Rubio's plan -- even though it mirrors what Obama called for last year, right down to the rhetoric.

"What you are doing is admirable and noteworthy," Limbaugh said.

Flip meet flop.

This says something about the intellectual honesty (or studiousness) of talk radio/TV. But it also speaks to Rubio's communication skills.

Gang of 4? Rubio, Coons Klobuchar, Hatch file high-skill immigration bill

Best theatrics part of this bill? Marco Rubio's Senate speech today when he wondered why PHds, etc. don't get a green card.

"That's crazy," Rubio said, starting to stammer at what he thinks is a no-brainer issue. "Not only..that...that's just..that's just.. That's cray-zee."

The proposal for this legislation will also appear in the more-celebrated Gang of Eight immigration plan proposed yesterday by Rubio et al. So let's call this the Gang of 4. Note: this posted was updated to reflect the fact that I can't add, having missed Coons.

Ok, here's the press release: