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.
Presidential Leaders Want Comprehensive Immigration Reform on Front Burner
President Bush counted immigration reform as one of his major regrets this week when cautioning the GOP not to be perceived as so "anti-somebody." While Bush's promise of comprehensive immigration reform took a back seat to the Iraq War back in 2001, current headlines suggest Obama's immigration reform campaign pledge is similarly taking a backseat to our economic woes. But in a step toward more immediate immigration reform, President-Elect Barack Obama met with Mexican President Felipe Calderon yesterday for lunch at the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington, D.C., to discuss, among other things, comprehensive immigration reform as a priority. Read More
Bush Regrets Not Pushing for Immigration Reform
This week, in an interview with Cal Thomas of the Washington Times, George W. Bush admitted that he regretted concentrating so much on Social Security and not pushing for immigration reform after his '04 reelection: Q: And biggest do-over? Knowing everything you know now, what would you have done over again? THE PRESIDENT: I probably, in retrospect, should have pushed immigration reform right after the ´04 election and not Social Security reform. Read More
The GOP’s New Year Resolution on Immigration
By any measurement the GOP lost more than an election this year. Many Republican candidates who incorporated immigrant-bashing and nativism into their platforms lost sight of the kind of country the U.S. has become and, in doing so, caused the GOP to experience a defeat the likes of which they have not seen in years. The Arizona Republic laid out the GOP's challenge ahead: For only the second time since 1979, they control neither the White House nor a chamber of Congress...More troubling for the GOP: They have been pushed back to a regional base in the South and in the depopulating plains. Congressional losses in 2008 all but wiped out Republican House representation in the Northeast. Republican presidential candidates have not been competitive in the Pacific Rim of California, Oregon and Washington for two decades. Once-staunchly GOP Virginia and Indiana went to Obama. Read More
2,000 Approved Naturalization Applicants Blocked from Voting
Red tape and a tightfisted judge blocked nearly 2,000 people who should've been able to vote this past Election Day from receiving their naturalization oath in time to register for November's general election. Lawful permanent residents with approved naturalization applications must take the oath of allegiance to become a U.S. citizen. According to a new government report and immigration analysts, federal judges in some parts of the U.S. may be refusing USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) requests for oath ceremonies and delaying the swearing-in of new citizens. Some USCIS district offices administer naturalization oaths themselves. But in a few districts-including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Detroit-only federal district courts have power to so and are then reimbursed by USCIS for all oath ceremonies they perform. Los Angeles itself received $2.4 million for the 169,799 oaths it administered in 2008. According to the Washington Post, the ombudsman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Michael Dougherty, stated: Read More
Immigration Remains Top-Tier Issue for New Administration
Gebe Martinez wrote in this week's Politico that "in presidential transition offices, immigration is cited as a top-tier issue that Obama will have to tackle early in his administration." While everyone knows the economy is the first order of business, even Michael Chertoff would agree that something needs to be done about immigration especially after it was revealed that undocumented workers were tidying up his suburban Maryland home. Chertoff would find himself in Conservative company. Leading Republicans have begun to publicly criticize the GOP's handling of the immigration issue following the Party's historic losses in November and the Republicans are rethinking their Hispanic strategy. Read More
Napolitano’s DHS Move: Lucky Country, Poor Arizona
Janet Napolitano of Arizona, Obama's pick for head of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is a border governor who's been in the eye of the immigration storm. Time and time again, she's proved that she understands that it is in our nation's interest to not only secure our borders, but also to provide for a realistic and practical immigration system that is in tune with our country's economic needs. Yet what does the Napolitano pick mean for Arizona? --"Lucky country. Poor Arizona," says a New York Times editorial. Read More
Republicans Rethinking Hispanic Strategy
Photo by AP. Yesterday a research group in Texas released extensive polling data among registered Lone Star voters, Beyond Bush, Texas Republicans in an Obama era. The report warns the Texas GOP that, "Hispanic voters won't affiliate with the GOP simply because we insist they really have nothing to complain about and ‘should' since they are socially conservative too; we need to actually listen to their concerns, tone down the rhetoric and attitude, find common ground on immigration/assimilation, and take concrete steps to make them feel welcome." Read More
Virginia Seeks to Help, Not Penalize Immigrants
It looks like someone is getting the message that being anti-immigrant isn’t a winning strategy. The Virginia Commission on Immigration plans to send Gov. Tim Kaine 24 recommendations, “most of which would help immigrants instead of penalizing them.” The recommendations include creating an immigration assistance office, allowing more legal immigrants to qualify for health benefits, offering in-state tuition to immigrants who meet specific criteria, and increasing the number of English classes available. The Commission will also call upon the federal government to increase the number of visas for foreign workers and pass comprehensive immigration legislation. Commission chairman Sen. John C. Watkins, a Republican from Chesterfield, echoed the frustration that states and localities are feeling across the country and stated that, “This is really a federal issue. They have pushed it down toward the states, and the time has come for them to deal with it. We have no jurisdiction.” Read More
Border Governor Janet Napolitano Favored for DHS Post
There’s no one better than a border governor to lead an office in charge of securing our borders and heading immigration enforcement and services. Recent reports indicate Governor Janet Napolitano (D-AZ) is emerging as the front runner for the position of Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) under the new Democratic administration. DHS is responsible for protecting the U.S. from terrorism, responding to natural disasters, as well as heading customs and border enforcement, citizenship and immigration services, and the secret service. In choosing Napolitano, the incoming administration is tapping someone who has experience with a variety of enforcement measures, while at the same time signaling their desire to have a strong advocate for immigration reform running the agencies that manage and execute immigration policy in America. Read More
Data Shows Americans Support CIR, Discredits Restrictionist’s Claims
Immigration restrictionists don’t know what to do with themselves. First off, none of the vehemently anti-immigrant candidates for president got their party’s nomination (or a great deal of public support), and both presidential candidates agreed on the need for comprehensive immigration reform – including a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Restrictionist poster child Lou Barletta failed to win his election for Congress in Pennsylvania and Libby Dole in North Carolina along with other enforcement-only candidates across the country lost to candidates who supported enforcement PLUS some kind of immigration reform. In the National Review Online, Mark Krikorian--Director of restrictionist organzation Center for Immigration Studies, apparently unable to find any other light at the end of the tunnel, hopes that President Obama will continue the heavy handed enforcement measures initiated by the Bush Administration, including a vast expansion of the flawed E-Verify employment verification system. Without doing so, Krikorian claims, Obama will lose his credibility in the eyes of Americans. Read More
All gifts are matched dollar for dollar
No one should face the immigration system alone
