The White House predicts little movement on comprehensive immigration reform before 2010. The ailing economy taking up much of the Obama administration’s time has shown its impact in immigration and remittances as well.
"If the United States is going to be a partner with Latin America—a healthy and laudable goal—the aspiring powers of the hemisphere need to shake off their timidity and worn-out rhetoric," write AS/COA's Senior Director of Policy Christopher Sabatini and Kissinger Associates' Stephanie Junger-Moat.
The leaders of Canada, Mexico, and the United States met August 9 and 10 for the first North American Leader’s Summit since President Barack Obama took office. Trade, climate change, migration, and security dominated talks and leaders voiced their commitment to a resolution to the Honduran crisis.
Passage of the Colombia trade deal would expand a robust market for U.S. goods and help combat the effects of the financial crisis, writes Benjamin D. Wolf of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.
With Sonia Sotomayor confirmed as a U.S. Supreme Court Justice, the Senate can now return to unfinished business on the Latin American front.
The Wilson Center’s Andrew Selee writes in the Houston Chronicle on U.S.-Mexican collaboration to combat drug violence and trafficking. “[W]hile stepped-up enforcement on the border is certainly welcome, it can hardly be the primary solution,” he writes. Excerpted from an Americas Quarterly essay.
"Concrete policy proposals and actions are required in order to keep the momentum and show the hemisphere, through deeds as well as words, that we really have embarked upon a new path in hemispheric affairs," writes COA's Eric Farnsworth in an article for Poder.
