Barack Obama has pledged to allow Puerto Rico to once and for all tackle the issue of its political status in his first term as president of the United States.

The controversial subject of Puerto Rico's status has been dividing the population of the small island territory for years, with some residents favoring state-hood, others favoring independence and some favoring the current commonwealth status.

Attorney General Michael Mukasey delivered his farewell remarks recently to the employees of the Department of Justice and in a remarkably brazen move announced a decision sure to have a lasting impact on immigration policy for years to come. Effectively, Mukasey has declared that immigrants and asylum seekers do not have any rights under the Constitution to representation by a lawyer. The Board of Immigration Appeals and most federal courts have operated under the assumption that immigrants do indeed have these basic rights of due process for decades.