Obama Hosts Calderon At Second State Dinner
President of Mexico, Felipe Calderon and President Barack Obama held a joint press conference ahead of the White House's second state dinner.
Of the various topics on the table being discussed today, including intellectual property rights, jobs, and next months G20 summit, comprehensive immigration reform and the disastrous drug wars spreading violence across Mexico and into the United States took the spotlight. President Obama specifically mentioned the controversial Arizona law in his opening comments, which he described as a misdirected attempt to secure their mutual boarder, while praising the attempts to reign in drug violence by the Mexican government.
For his part, President Calderon reciprocated the need to strengthen intellectual property rights, the focus on jobs, the broader economy, and the upcoming G20 talks as well as the more contentious problems mentioned by President Obama. President Calderon said that more resources will be sent to the boarder to help secure the boarder while the U.S. Congress works to pass comprehensive immigration reform. However, he reiterated his opposition to what he called criminalizing migration, keeping in line with his stance that immigration is an economic byproduct.
The first question was, not surprisingly, about the Arizona law and President Obama said that as it stands it could be used in a discriminatory manner and is essentially misguided, so he supports passing immigration reform. He took a swipe at Republicans at the same time when he said that he could get the support of a majority of Democrats in the House and Senate, but he still needed some Republican support to get it done.
The second question concerned the drug war and President Obama reinforced what Secretary of State Clinton had said last year, that the United States must take responsibility for being a huge consumer of illegal drugs. He added that it was American money and guns that were fuelling the terrible violence being experienced in Mexico from the powerful drug cartels.
In any event, it looks like both governments are in agreement on many more issues than they disagree, even on how crappy the Arizona immigration law is.
Watch the press conference below:
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Of the various topics on the table being discussed today, including intellectual property rights, jobs, and next months G20 summit, comprehensive immigration reform and the disastrous drug wars spreading violence across Mexico and into the United States took the spotlight. President Obama specifically mentioned the controversial Arizona law in his opening comments, which he described as a misdirected attempt to secure their mutual boarder, while praising the attempts to reign in drug violence by the Mexican government.
For his part, President Calderon reciprocated the need to strengthen intellectual property rights, the focus on jobs, the broader economy, and the upcoming G20 talks as well as the more contentious problems mentioned by President Obama. President Calderon said that more resources will be sent to the boarder to help secure the boarder while the U.S. Congress works to pass comprehensive immigration reform. However, he reiterated his opposition to what he called criminalizing migration, keeping in line with his stance that immigration is an economic byproduct.
The first question was, not surprisingly, about the Arizona law and President Obama said that as it stands it could be used in a discriminatory manner and is essentially misguided, so he supports passing immigration reform. He took a swipe at Republicans at the same time when he said that he could get the support of a majority of Democrats in the House and Senate, but he still needed some Republican support to get it done.
The second question concerned the drug war and President Obama reinforced what Secretary of State Clinton had said last year, that the United States must take responsibility for being a huge consumer of illegal drugs. He added that it was American money and guns that were fuelling the terrible violence being experienced in Mexico from the powerful drug cartels.
In any event, it looks like both governments are in agreement on many more issues than they disagree, even on how crappy the Arizona immigration law is.
Watch the press conference below:
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