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Monday, July 2, 2007

We Ask You: A government immigration ombudsman?

While making the Internet rounds this morning, we came across an incredibly interesting concept. In Australia, there is a government-funded position called "Commonwealth and Immigration Ombudsman."

The man who currently holds this position, John McMillan, reports on how he feels the Department of Immigration has been doing. For example, he recently released a report criticizing the department for several errors that led to the detention of 247 immigrants there.

Is such a thing even potentially feasible in the United States—an ombudsman for the Department of Homeland Security or U.S. Immigration? Would such a position be beneficial or do other members of society provide enough necessary criticism that there's no need for it? What would such a position add, if anything? Would the government stand for it? Would voters like this idea? Do you? Post in the comment section and let's get some good discussion going.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

The government wouldn't stand for it -- they like watching us (Patriot Act, etc) but would never stand for letting an insider publicly critique them.

Anonymous said...

It's definitely a refreshing idea.... however, something tells me that the Australian govt might be more enlightened than the US'

Anonymous said...

It seems to me that every single governmental body -- legislative, federal, etc. -- should have an ombudsman. I think an ombudsman would have access to information that the media only gets in rare instances. Practically, though, would that even happen? No. Lucky Aussies.

ultima said...

With immigration courts and and the court of appeals what else is needed?

Who would be the ombudsman to represent the citizenry?

Anonymous said...

Frank gehry,

If by "more enlightened" you mean "more liberal immigration policies" from the Australian government, you are grossly mistaken. Australia has some of the toughest immigration laws in the world. They basically do not want anyone unless they are high-skilled and under 45 years of age, or has at least 50K in cash. They favor English speaking peoples over non-English speakers. Australia would NEVER put up with a mass illegal invasion of 10s of millions of low-skilled, non-English-speaking foreigners. They also make clear that English is their language and one of their cabinet ministers recently told their Muslim immigrants to either accept secular law instead of sharia, or get the hell out. No multi-culti nonsense for those tough Diggers, they are serious about keeping their First World society First World.

I seriously researched Australian immigration laws when it looked like the shamnesty bill would pass. I was NOT going to pay my share of the 2.6 trillion dollars in "free" social services that the bill would have cost me, nor was I going to learn Spanish just because 10s of millions of Spanish-speaking "immigrants" have illegally violated my nation's sovereignty.

Anonymous said...

Who would be the ombudsman to represent the citizenry?

Unclear on the concept, ulty. We native-born law-abiding taxpaying Americans and legal immigrants are cows to be milked for taxdollars, and that's it. Cows don't need an ombudsman.

Anonymous said...

There are several European countries who employ an onbudsman who should help individuals in their struggle against government bodies, who are difficult to fight.
Thes ombudsmen, however should not be employed by the same government, that they are supposed to investigate.
As such they can never sound off an independant vote.
Being employed by the same government body as which they are supposed to investigate makes them not very independant and the outcome is predictable.

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