Federals want to stop Texas Voter ID Law

The Obama administration and the Justice Department want to stop the Texan law that requires its citizens to show their identification while voting. The Justice Department plans to look for a court order that declares that the Texan law violates some constitutional rights along with the Voting Rights Act. Attorney General Eric Holder supports the effort taken to protect the voting rights of the people. Due to a Supreme Court case, it requires an approval from Washington before voting regulations can be changed in the states, specifically the southern states. In order to claim that the Voting Rights Act has been violated, the Justice Department must find proof of “purposeful” discrimination taking place. Texas Governor Rick Perry doesn’t want the federal government involved in the way the state is ruled and thinks that Eric Holder and Obama “obstruct the will of the people of Texas”. The NAACP, on the other hand, rejoices in the decision taken to challenge the Texan practice, for the organization claims that there is a history of African Americans and Latinos being suppressed while voting. The president of the group, Sherrilyn Ifill, believes that the voter ID law is not worth the problem it’s going to cause, for there is rarely a person who dares to vote illegally. 

In the light of the U.S. Constitution, two amendments could be used to help describe the issue. Governor Rick Perry believes that the Obama Administration is violating the 10th Amendment, which defines the balance of power between the federal and state government. The federal government wants to change a Texas specific law that requires an ID to vote, but Perry claims that that is the will of the people. Is it really the will of the people? Or is it the will of the governor and other state officials? I believe that the people are only concerned with getting the voting rights they deserve and don’t want to discriminate against the minorities. The discrimination of races goes against the 15^th Amendment of the Constitution, which protects the right of voting for all black citizens. I think the 15^th Amendment could easily apply for Latinos. Although they are not African American, the amendment was made with the purpose of protecting the right to vote for citizens despite of race and color. I feel that America should continue granting those rights to everyone so everyone can have a chance to choose how they want to be represented and how they want the future to be.

Immigration Debate Becomes Intense

The White House and the House are in disagreement when it comes to immigration. As the nation faces the challenge of having an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants, the Republicans and Democrats are in debate on how to solve the issue. The White House supports a pathway to citizenship for the immigrants while the House Republicans support the construction of a stronger border. The House approves small scale proposals, but they refuse to agree on the approach that the White House and the Senate favor. They’re trying to block the making of a path to citizenship to the illegal immigrants rather than help build one, and yet they believe Boehner, a Republican, had contributed the most to the fixing of immigration issue by contributing the most to the improvement of the border patrol. Carney, the White House Press secretary criticized their statement by saying that they haven’t contributed as much as they say, or at least there’s no proof they did.

A group of young immigrants called the Dreamers who were brought to the U.S. illegally when they were kids or infants fought for the DREAM Act which would’ve granted them a path to citizenship. A hearing held by the House subcommittee didn’t allow the Dream Act to pass. Instead, similar proposals were made by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, yet some Democrats and immigration advocates think that the proposal fails to help millions of other immigrants such as the parents and relatives of the ones benefited. Some supporters are just glad that some Conservative Republicans are willing to consider a pathway to citizenship for the minorities. House Judiciary Trey Gowdy warns that all immigrants cannot expect to be treated the same by lawmakers, for not everyone is the same.

Again, another debate between Democrats, Republicans, border supporters, and immigration advocates is unleashed. Immigration is a delicate issue, especially for the Dreamers, because their fates are on the line. Although in the U.S. Constitution it states that a person is a citizen if they were born in the U.S. or have a parent that is a U.S. citizen, an exemption is attempted, for the Dreamers have practically lived here in the United States for the majority of their lives. They don’t know much about the country they were born in because all of their memories have taken place in this nation. The denial of citizenship impairs them from being able to obtain a driver’s license, from being applicable for financial help for higher education, even if they were excellent students, and from obtaining a job. All of these tasks and many more can become dangerous to an undocumented if he or she got caught. They have to live in the darkness, hiding from the rest if they hope to stay. Life as an immigrant is tough. One cannot help but feel threatened and helpless when some members of the government want to do little to nothing to help; one sees that families are being broken apart while the government officials are taking their time trying to get to an agreement on how to address the issue. All Dreamers and other undocumented people can do is continue pushing for a proposal that would help the vast majority of their suffering group.

Push is on against Health Law

Republicans are against the Obamacare Law and want it to be taken away to reduce government spending. Republicans and Democrats are not getting along, for their priorities are in discordance. Republicans in Congress are against the programs President Obama is promoting to help the economy. They are against his health care law, the spending on infrastructure, and environment spending because they believe they are unnecessary expenses. The House Appropriations subcommittee drafted legislation that would lower the budget of the Environmental Protection Agency and get rid of greenhouse gas regulations. The House has only provided Obama with a fraction of the money he had previously requested for renewable energy. A House bill to finance health and job programs threatens to get rid of the Public Broadcasting Corporation. In the White House, programs like Head Start and institutes of health were a priority, but the Republicans oppose to them because they fear that grants for low income students would lower and would affect the Labor Department negatively as well. In the Senate, Republicans threaten to not approve spending on Obamacare. They are trying to get the law repealed or modified. The government is in danger of shutting down for about a month if Congress and Obama can’t get to an agreement. White House members and leaders feel as though the Republicans are being unfair to the Obamacare. Senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer believes that Republicans need to start working with the Democrats or else the nation will be the one affected. The Senate has drafted some spending bills, but Obama has vetoed them. Yet, the Republicans insist that Obama has to give up some of his priorities.

In this case, the different parts of government express their power. The House is in charge of providing the President with a budget to run the programs that he wants to support. We see that the House doesn’t give the President the amount he requested and makes him conform to a much smaller budget. I think this is a rude tactic to express disapproval of the President’s actions. He was to use the budget in programs that would help the environment and create new ways to use energy, along with the improvement of health programs, yet the House made up an excuse to go contrary to the President’s decisions. The parties are blinded with hatred and are not doing what they can to avoid conflict. As George Washington stated in his First Inaugural Address, “there shall be no political parties”. I think he said this because he foresaw the types of conflicts that are seen right now. The Republicans can’t get along with the Democrats and vice-versa. I think if the government continues in conflict, they may begin losing power and control over the people because their disagreements don’t allow anything to get done. Also, the representatives in the government are supposed to be there to express the will of the people, yet they seem to instead spread their own thoughts and opinions to the people they represent. To me, the government seems inefficient and unreliable to get things done, like making a positive change on the issues that have troubled the nation for years. Here is Obama trying to handle issues such as global warming and a high population without health care insurance, and all the Republicans are worried about is the money and not letting the Democrats do their thing. There needs to be an agreement soon, for the nation cannot wait too long.