Today’s Times
- Cecilia Muñoz, a longtime immigration activist, was denounced and called a traitor after she joined the Obama administration and defended its deportation policy, Michael D. Shear writes. But now, as President Obama becomes the first president in decades with a chance to get an overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws through Congress, Ms. Muñoz’s loyalty in the face of public criticism appears to have paid off.
- The dearth of candidates for open Senate seats reflects what former and current senators say is a sad truth: the chamber, which was once considered an apex of national politics, is so riven by partisanship and gummed up by its own arcane rules, Jeremy W. Peters reports, that potential candidates from across the nation are loudly saying, “Thanks but no thanks.â€
- A group of academics joined a gathering of former government and military officials in Washington this week to discuss their commitment to ending the government’s “truth embargo†on the existence of extraterrestrial life, Andrew Siddons reports. The lawmakers were there in hopes that their presence and political credibility would be enough to persuade Congress to take the issue seriously.
Weekly Address
- President Obama delivered this week’s address from Mexico City, where he spoke about “working with our neighbors on our common security and our common prosperity.†He said that Latin America presented an opportunity for him to expand on his top priority of creating jobs for the middle class. “One of the best ways to grow our economy is to sell more goods and services made in America to the rest of the world,†he said. “That includes our neighbors to the south.â€
The president also discussed border security and the immigration legislation that has been introduced in the Senate. “This bill is a compromise, which means that nobody got everything they wanted â€" including me,†he said. “It would modernize our legal immigration system so that we’re able to reunite families and attract the highly skilled entrepreneurs and engineers who will help create good-paying jobs for our economy.â€
Happenings in Washington
- Samuel Winstead, a World War II Marine combat veteran, has been on a 350-mile biking journey called the Ride for Peace. He is scheduled to end the trip, which started on April 28 in Raleigh, N.C., in Lafayette Park in Washington on Saturday.
