Summary: Attorney General Jeff Sessions

The above facts and details of appointments serve as great strengths for Greenburg, but there are also weaknesses she failed to touch on and include in this book. Greenburg fails to consider how the same scare-tactic rhetoric used by democratic and liberal senators nearly every time a conservative justice is nominated as well she only glances and summarizes the events of Thomas’ confirmation hearing and the attempted filibuster of Samuel Alito’s nomination. These accounts would have provided more information and context for the book to give a more well-rounded account of these appointments

Fifty-two years after the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, the racial tensions and geopolitical pressures within the United States continue to influence the policies of immigration. Since 1965, there has not been any major advancements in immigration policies, though with current President, Donald Trump, immigration policies are facing reforms. President Trump has followed closely with the ideals of past strict immigration policies in the America first attitude. Trump’s goals are to achieve three key objectives, that are, “to ensure safe and lawful admissions; defend the safety and security of our country; and protect American workers and taxpayers” (Office of the Press Secretary). With his newly proposed travel ban in effect, the country is eager to see how it will impact the United States and its relations with other countries.

Despite the years of Republican obstructionism in Congress, as well as a breathtaking lack of respect from his political opponent, President Obama reformed the healthcare and immigration system. President Obama signed the ACA into law in March 2010 and promoted a broad immigration reform. Although it did not become law, the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act, (DREAM Act) set the stage for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. “Immigration and Executive Action” article writes:

There have been many disagreements surrounding Merrick Garland. He has been remarkably silent when it came to the issues involving abortion, affirmative action, and immigration, which affect millions of people. On the other hand, Garland ruled on other major matters such as gun control, the environment, criminal justice, Guantanamo and the government transparency.

When Associate Justice Antonin Scalia perished in Texas from natural causes, the focus was on the storm of controversy that was sparked by the now vacant space on the highest court in the nation, rather than the great tragedy of an honorable and long-serving government official passing away. While this does paint a sorry picture of our nation's focus on who has the power rather than individual's happiness, the altercation caused by the urgent, important, and pressing question of who should appoint the next Associate Justice of the Supreme Court and who the next Associate Justice should by is in many ways essential to what our country's main policies become in the next fifty years. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the senate majority leader and thus

President Barrack Obama in a Huffington Post article back in 2014 said, “I think it 's probably useful for us to review how the funding has gone, how local law enforcement has used grant dollars, to make sure that what they are purchasing is stuff they actually need. Because there’s a big difference between our military and local law enforcement and we don 't want those lines blurred. That would be contrary to our traditions.” This is all too familiar nowadays. Police Militarization has appeared to have gone too far in local and state police officers. To combat the war on drugs in 1971 President Richard Nixon declared the war on drugs causing a dramatic increase in federal agencies both in size and presence. It wasn’t until 1997 when the 1033 program launched causing billions of dollars of military surplus equipment to be available to local and state law enforcement. Now in 2015 some lawmakers are attempting to stop the program, such as Democratic Florida representative Alan Grayson. Grayson failed in his attempts in June to stop the 1033 program by a 3 to 1 margin by his own Democratic Party. It is unclear how our reliance on high duty weaponry and the latest technology can help police officers who only see the equipment as toys. For example, in August 9th the murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri caused unrest when a police officer shot an unarmed man. Putting race aside this is a direct violation of the 4th amendment. Justice Byron R. White stated that, “The

There are a number of repercussions that need to be feared if the current witch hunt mentality continues to vilify this countries law enforcement agencies. It is time for rational minded individuals to stand up and be the voice of reason against politicians who would exploit this issue, the media that is happy to distort this issue, and so called activists who want to scream at the world because they are angry with the world. We must be careful that the police don’t lose their ability to police, or become fearful of doing their jobs because of the highly publicized slander. A possibility that FBI director James Comey has name the “Ferguson Effect A notion that he and many in law enforcement think is valid. However, President Obama has

He drafted and signed an executive order that begins the construction for the border wall ("Executive Order…”). This action sparked discontent between Trump and the Mexican president since Mexico has no plans to pay for a border wall that they do not want. For the payment of the wall Trump has said that he will place a tax on Mexican imports the problem with this is that it puts the burden of paying for the wall on US consumers and businesses as this tax will rise prices for Mexican products and materials. Seeing as Mexico is one of the US’s largest trading partners it could very well have an effect one everyone in the US. Another executive order that is “in the works” called for 10,000 border patrol officers to be hired to increase the security along the border, just as Trump promised (Valverde). The first controversial order of these particular executive orders is the one that requires sanctuary cities to hand over illegal immigrants or risk losing federal grant money ("What Trump Has…”). In opposition to sanctuary cities John Culberson, a Republican from Texas, pointed out that federal law requires local and state officials to share immigration information with federal authorities ("Showdown Looms…”). However, Peter Markowitz stated in a CNN article that the constitution prevents that federal government from “conditioning funding in order to coerce local agencies into federal service” ("Sanctuary Cities…”). Both

U.S Customs and Border Protection has also been in charge in keeping terrorist and terrorist weapons out of the country while enforcing hundreds of U.S laws (Peak, 2009, Pg. 164). Consequently, immigrants have been victims of human trafficking. According to Larry K. Gaines from the textbook Criminal Justice in Action, U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has played an important role in focusing the nation’s borders. Their mission is to detain illegal aliens and deport them to their country, and disrupting trafficking operations. In 2008, ICE removed about

more with less. Many police departments have had to lay off officers, and some have eliminated

3.   Donald Trump has been claiming that the crime rates in the United States have been skyrocketing, while reading the “Crime ‘Carnage’” section in the article he never really discusses the crime rates overall, during his inauguration speech he only discusses the crime rates that have happened in the past year. According to the article, the “FBI data shows that the violent crime rate has been on a “decline” since 1991 when it increased up to 758.2 but it was only half of that in 2015 with a rate of 372.6”. The murder rates also increased, increased by 14% according to the analysis from the Brennan Center for Justice but only

From the very beginning of his campaign trail, Donald Trump piqued America’s interest with his blunt and oftentimes shocking statements. With his candidacy came exclamations of making America great, building walls, deporting illegal immigrants, and keeping jobs in the United States. A Google search

The national crime rate has been dropping for the past several years. Over a 38% drop has been reported since 1993. The drop in the crime rate of America is mainly because of three top reasons. These reasons include the involvement of the community, the offenders of small crimes are being interrogated to come up with leads of larger crimes, and the new computer technology available today.

Police Reform should be one of the many issues handled in the first one-hundred days of our new President’s term. The unrest and corruption are actions that do not belong in our police force. The criminal justice system needs revised. Since 1791 Americans have lost 20,789 officers killed in the line of duty (Law Enforcement Facts 1). To modernize this statistic, from 2004-2013 an average of 151 officers have died in the line of duty (Deaths,

According to the FBI's final crime statistics for 2006, see chart below, violent crime is up for the second consecutive year, the first time that's happened in over 10 years. Until 2005, violent crime had steadily dropped over 15 years. The new rise in violence is gradual, not a tidal wave. However, it is still sobering for law enforcement agencies that now realize they have been overconfident.