Elections & Voting
The growth in the immigrant population has helped to strengthen and remake America over the last two decades. Today, as thousands of baby boomers retire each day, working-age immigrants are filling gaps in the labor market, paying billions of dollars in taxes that help our entitlement programs survive, and buying homes in communities that would otherwise be in decline. Millions of immigrants have also earned U.S. citizenship and the right to vote while millions more are estimated to be eligible to naturalize.
Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio Adds More Flash to His Pan
Anti-immigrant media glutton, Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, doesn’t stay out of the headlines for very long. In March, the menacing Sheriff Arpaio, known for transforming Arizona’s Maricopa County Police Department into an immigration-enforcement agency, made headlines when he became the focus of a Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation for “allegations of discriminatory practices based on a person’s national origin and unconstitutional searches and seizures.” The federal investigation, a result of racial profiling allegations, only makes this latest headline all the more ironic—Sheriff Arpaio now says the Department of Justice is not playing fair in its investigation. Read More
A New Study Reinforces Growing Influence of Second Generation Latinos
A new study by the Pew Hispanic Center estimates that only 7% of all Latino children are undocumented immigrants. Pew also found that a growing share of the children with unauthorized immigrant parents—4 million or 73%—were born in this country and are U.S. Read More
Obama’s Controversial Two-Step Moves in Direction of Immigration Reform
After boosting border enforcement, the Obama Administration recently announced that it will also increase funding for a troublesome program started by George W. Bush. The controversial program gives Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) unregulated access to the immigration information of every person in local prisons across the United States. Although Obama may be sending mixed signals as he paves a road to immigration reform—signals that frustrates many of his most steadfast supporters—he also understands that he must smooth the way for immigration reform by restoring the confidence of the American public and prove that the government is capable of upholding the rule of law. Immigration enforcement is fundamentally a federal responsibility, but state and local governments can and should play a role in helping the federal government remove violent criminals from American society. Obama's focus on catching hardened criminals represents the right prioritization of resources that are being funneled in the wrong direction. Rather than addressing the serious problems associated with the Bush Administration's "Secure Communities" program, Obama's 2010 budget, which allots $200 million for the program, seeks to expand rather than mend the deeply flawed initiative. Read More
Sheriff Joe Arpaio to Recruit and Arm Citizens, Neo-Nazis “Have His Back”
Rather than cleaning up his police department and addressing allegations of racial profiling and discrimination, Arpaio has decided to recruit and arm more Maricopa citizens in the absence of state funds. Back in April, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors in Arizona voted to postpone the acceptance of $1.6 million from the state to help pay for County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's controversial immigration enforcement tactics. Observers said the decision could signal that the board is concerned by federal inquires into Arpaio's practices that stem from his hard-line immigration tactics which include the deputization of volunteer "posses" to perform immigration sweeps, armed workplace raids, and set up checkpoints. Read More
Olbermann Blames “Republican Echo Chamber” for “Making Scapegoats Out of Mexicans”
This week, Keith Olbermann went after right-wing pundits who are scapegoating immigrants for the swine flu epidemic. During his MSNBC show, Olbermann condemned comments made by Michelle Malkin, Glenn Beck, Michael Savage, and others: In responding to Swine Flu, however, the Republican party‘s chosen talking heads have opted for an oldie but goodie. Our third story tonight, making scapegoats out of Mexicans... Well, yes, you [Michelle Malkin] are a racist. Exactly how does that apply, though, to the people who the Centers for Disease Control confirmed actually carried the Swine Flu from Mexico to the U.S., a group of Catholic school students from New York City, who spent Spring Break in Cancun. Uncontrolled Catholic immigration, open borders for private school kids reckless? Read More
Obama Moving “Full Steam Ahead” On Immigration Reform
At a news conference commemorating his 100th day in office, President Obama indicated that his administration is planning on moving “full steam ahead on all fronts” on immigration reform. Obama told Telemundo reporter, Lori Montenegro, that he hopes to convene working groups to start building a framework for how immigration… Read More
Economic Benefits of Immigration a Safe Bet
Conservative guru Richard Nadler is willing to make a couple bets. He's willing to put money on the fact that in less than one year's time, new members of Congress will be sporting an immigrant-friendly platform, beating out candidates who promote restrictionist policies. Most recently, Nadler announced that he is also willing to bet that, over time, states with the highest percentage of undocumented immigrants will recover from the economic recession more quickly than other states with smaller immigrant populations. Nadler's analysis applies to Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Texas, and Utah -- as well as the District of Columbia -- all of which are currently under some sort of budget constraint. According to Nadler: Read More
Arizona’s Sheriff Arpaio Puts Publicity Before Border Violence Hearing
You'd think America's self-proclaimed "toughest sheriff," Joe Arpaio, would've been in his hometown of Phoenix, Arizona to attend yesterday's U.S. Senate hearing on border violence. Instead, while a panel of U.S. Senators lead by John McCain traveled to Arizona, Sheriff Arpaio was well on his way to appear on Stephen Colbert's comedy show, The Colbert Report, taped in New York City. Arpaio is known for transforming Arizona's Maricopa County Police Department into an immigration-enforcement agency, taking the pursuit of undocumented immigrants to "unconstitutional extremes" and gaining international notoriety and a Department of Justice investigation in the process. Yet, if all his extreme tactics are in the name of protecting his community, why did Arpaio miss a hearing on one of the biggest threats to Maricopa County's public safety hosted in his own town hall? The truth is Arpaio's appetite for publicity is so insatiable that it overrides any sense of duty, rationality, or morality. Read More
Obama Reasserts Support of Immigration Reform at Summit of the Americas
This past weekend, at the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago, President Barack Obama reaffirmed his commitment to reforming the broken U.S. immigration system. Obama met with the Central American Integration System (Sistema de la Integración Centroamericana), and was "especially receptive" to the requests coming from the presidents of Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Belize for a workable immigration system that advances the economic and humanitarian interests of both sending and receiving nations. According to the Latin American Herald Tribune: On the immigration issue, which completely dominated the meeting, the leaders also discussed matters like the possibilities for ensuring family reunification, quotas for agricultural jobs and the fight against drug trafficking, all within a friendly atmosphere amid which the leaders agreed in general terms on almost everything they talked about. Read More
Pay Attention to that Man behind the Curtain
As right-wing political pundits questioned the Obama administrations’ renewed commitment to comprehensive immigration reform yesterday, the Wall Street Journal pulled back the curtain to reveal White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, as a new committed ally in the fight for immigration reform. Billed as a brilliant political strategist by Janet Murguia of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), Rahm Emanuel has taken a new direction in setting the political stage for comprehensive immigration reform to pass. Most recently, Emanuel had a heavy hand in ushering the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) bill through Congress. SCHIP is a program which extends health care benefits to legal immigrant children and pregnant women. Read More
All gifts are matched dollar for dollar
No one should face the immigration system alone
