Florida’s Deputy Attorney General Joseph W. Jacquot coauthored an article published in the Wall Street Journal earlier this month that calls on recently elected Republicans to tackle immigration reform, and argues against the DREAM Act.
In the Journal article, Jacquot and coauthor David B. Rivkin Jr. wrote:
Congress has struggled mightily for a solution to the estimated 12 million-plus illegal aliens already in the country. This is the most difficult and politically contentious piece of immigration reform. A legalization-only approach—even if targeted at a subset of the illegal alien population, as the Dream Act is for college-bound students—would only ensure that, several years from now, there would be millions more new illegal aliens attracted by the hope of future legalization.
The article states that immigration reform should focus on three issues crucial to the United States: security, the economy, and freedom. The article points to the obligations the federal government has in resolving the issues surrounding immigration.
Jacquot was chief counsel for the U.S. Senate Judiciary’s Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security from 2003 to 2004 . In that role he worked as lead counsel for the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006.
The extensive CIR 2006 was approved in the U.S. Senate but died in the U.S. House. Its provisions included enhancements to border security and interior enforcement, mechanisms to control unlawful employment of aliens, the creation of a temporary nonimmigrant worker category as well as language to provide and/or expand certain types of worker visas.
Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum appointed Jacquot deputy attorney general and chief of staff in 2007. Jacquot is the lead strategic counsel for Florida v. U.S. Health and Human Services, in which 20 states are challenging the constitutionality of the federal health care act.
Rivkin is an attorney at Washington, D.C.-based Baker Hostetler, part of the legal tea supporting the Florida-led lawsuit against the federal health care act.
