Critical Releases in Homeland Security: June 27, 2012

From Janet Napolitano's opening statement: "By this memorandum, I am setting forth how, in the exercise of our prosecutorial discretion, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) should enforce the Nation's immigration laws against certain young people who were brought to this country as children and know only this country as home. As a general matter, these individuals lacked the intent to violate the law and our ongoing review of pending removal cases is already offering administrative closure to many of them. However, additional measures are necessary to ensure that our enforcement resources are not expended on these low priority cases but are instead appropriately focused on people who meet our enforcement priorities."

"Drug consumption in the United States continues to increase. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, in 2010, about 22.6 million Americans aged 12 and older were current illegal drug users, representing 8.9 percent of the population. This is the largest proportion in the past decade of people aged 12 and older identified as current illegal drug users. As members of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control, we find this unacceptable. Illegal drug use in the United States has created a major public health problem here at home while also fueling violence in drug producing and transit countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. This report outlines a series of concrete steps that the President and Congress can take to reduce the massive U.S. demand for illegal drugs. It draws on information gathered by Caucus staff through travel to key prevention, treatment and recovery programs in California, Arizona and Illinois, briefings, interviews and a review of documents from both government and non-government subject matter experts."

"The United States' commitment to fighting modern slavery did not simply materialize 12 years ago with the passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act or the adoption the same year of the U.N. Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (Palermo Protocol). This country's tragic history is not forgotten, nor are the bloodshed and lives lost in the fight to end state-sanctioned slavery. The year 2012 will mark the 150th anniversary of the date Abraham Lincoln gave notice of the Emancipation Proclamation. That document and the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution, following three years later, represent more than policies written on paper. They represent the promise of freedom. […] Human trafficking appears in many guises. It might take the form of compelled commercial sexual exploitation, the prostitution of minors, debt bondage, or forced labor. The United States government, and increasingly, the international community, view 'trafficking in persons' as the term through which all forms of modern slavery are criminalized. Why, then, are so many different actions considered the same crime? Why are so many terms used to describe one human rights abuse? Exploitation lies at the core of modern slavery. Whether held on a worksite or trapped in prostitution, a victim of this crime has suffered an infringement of the right to be free from enslavement."