Immigration Reform
The last time Congress updated our legal immigration system was November 1990, one month before the World Wide Web went online. We are long overdue for comprehensive immigration reform.
Through immigration reform, we can provide noncitizens with a system of justice that provides due process of law and a meaningful opportunity to be heard. Because it can be a contentious and wide-ranging issue, we aim to provide advocates with facts and work to move bipartisan solutions forward. Read more about topics like legalization for undocumented immigrants and border security below.
Who Will Pass the DREAM Act Test?
After Senator Harry Reid’s announcement Wednesday that he will bring the DREAM Act to the Senate floor in the lame duck as a stand-alone bill, DREAM supporters gathered in Washington yesterday to plead their case. Yesterday’s events signaled the beginning of yet another intense campaign to pass the DREAM Act—a bill that would offer a path to legal status to those who have graduated from high-school, stayed out of trouble, and plan to attend college or serve in the U.S. military for at least two years. Although the DREAM Act has been backed by both Democrats and Republicans for nearly a decade, it has never become law—thanks, in part, to some members of Congress who would rather make political hay out of a piece of legislation that seeks to help students who, as outgoing Florida Republican Lincoln Diaz-Balart said, “are being punished for decisions not made by them.” This time around, however, the DREAM Act may represent more than just an up-or-down vote on a piece of immigration legislation, but rather, a true test of American values. Read More
The DREAM Act: Creating Economic Opportunities
There are an estimated 1.9 million undocumented children and young adults in the United States who might be eligible for legal status under the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act (DREAM) Act. For many of these young people, the United States is the only home they know and English is their first language. Each year, tens of thousands of them graduate from primary or secondary school, often at the top of their classes. They have the potential to be future doctors, nurses, teachers, and entrepreneurs, but they experience unique hurdles to achieving success in this country. Through no fault of their own, their lack of status may prevent them from attending college or working legally. The DREAM Act would provide an opportunity for them to live up to their full potential and make greater contributions to the U.S. economy and society. Read More
New Report Describes Peril Immigrant Women Face in U.S. Food Industry
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) released a new report called Injustice on our Plates: Immigrant Women in the U.S. Food Industry which looks at the conditions under which immigrant women work. It documents and personalizes the stories of women who have made the dangerous journey to the U.S. seeking a better life for themselves and their families, only to end up working long hours under extremely difficult and dangerous conditions. Read More
Pelosi, Reid to Push DREAM Act in Lame Duck
Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), nearing the end of his reelection campaign last month, told Univision’s Jorge Ramos that, win or lose, he would bring up the DREAM Act during lame duck session. This week, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi threw her support behind Sen. Reid, also advocating for a DREAM vote during lame duck. The DREAM Act, an immigration bill that would provide legal status to young people who graduate from high school and pursue college or military service, failed to reach a vote this September after Senate Republicans blocked the Defense Authorization Act, the bill which carried the DREAM Act as an amendment. Now many immigration advocates are looking down the legislative road and say bringing DREAM to a vote during lame duck—when Democrats still have the House and Senate—is the bill’s best chance of becoming law. Read More
Remembering Our Immigrant Veterans: An Incalculable Contribution
Whenever restrictionist groups calculate the cost of an immigrant, they inevitably overlook the contributions of immigrant veterans who fight and die on behalf of Americans every single day. Immigrants have voluntarily served in all branches of the U.S. military from the beginnings of our great nation. In fact, without the contributions of immigrants, the military could not meet its recruiting goals and could not fill the need for foreign-language translators, interpreters, and cultural experts. Read More
Enforcing Your Way into the Red: Hazleton Could Learn an Expensive Immigration Lesson
Yet another locality learned the financial perils of passing an anti-immigrant law. Last Friday, a panel from the Third Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a district court decision to require the City of Hazelton, PA, to pay $2.4 million in legal fees to the Plaintiffs instead of their insurance carrier. The Plaintiffs (Pedro Lozano, Casa Dominicana of Hazleton Inc., Hazleton Hispanic Business Association and the Pennsylvania Statewide Latino Coalition) accumulated legal fees when they challenged the constitutionality of the Hazleton law—a law which would have fined landlords renting to undocumented immigrants, denied businesses permits if they employed undocumented immigrants, and had the town investigate the legal status of an employee or tenant upon request of any citizen, business, or organization. Read More
How Will Republican Leadership Play their Cards on Immigration?
The predictions are already rolling in that the 112th Congress will get little done, each party miring themselves in partisan differences with the goal of a White House win in 2012. The thought of gridlock on so many pressing issues facing the country—fiscal policy, stimulating the economy, ensuring job growth—is sobering. And two more years of inaction on immigration reform—reform that would help our economy grow and respects the rights of people—well, that’s simply depressing. But it doesn’t have to be that way. If Speaker-elect John Boehner is really interested in governing, he will think long and hard about the direction he allows the House to go on immigration. Read More
Is the Latino Vote Up for Grabs? Midterm Polling and the Future of the Latino Vote
Last night, GOP candidates won a number of key Senate, House and gubernatorial races as well as a majority in the House of Representatives. The night, however, wasn’t a total wash for the Democratic Party who managed to hold onto a majority in the Senate. Headlining the Senate races, Nevada Senator Harry Reid held onto his seat against Tea Party flag bearer Sharron Angle, whose seemingly endless stream of anti-immigrant campaign attack ads went from bad to worse. In a state where roughly 1 in 4 residents is Latino, many are chalking up Sen. Reid’s victory to the power of the Latino vote. Early polling seems to indicate that the Latino vote helped secure several key races for Democrats out west (in CA, CO, NV), but not across the board necessarily. Although trending Democratic, the Latino vote was not enough to win gubernatorial races in New Mexico or Nevada. So what gives? What does it take to successfully court the Latino vote? Read More
Setting the Stage for Immigration Reform
As people head to the polls tomorrow, they will consider a wide range of important issues—the economy, health care, unemployment, deficit spending, tax cuts and immigration to name a few. Not all voters are single issue voters, nor will people vote strictly down party or demographic lines. But whomever people vote for, it is critically important that they consider their issues not only as a reflection of where we are now, but where we want to be down the road, using present day indicators as road signs. Immigration, as of late, has been wielded like a political weapon—used in campaign attack ads and across the media to slander opponents and set the political stage for what’s to come (read: more angry rhetoric and no action). As the Immigration Policy Center noted in its recent report on the New American voter, one in ten registered voters is likely to have a personal connection to immigration that may very well affect their views on candidates. Read More
GOP Leaders Huff and Puff in Yet Another Letter to Napolitano about ICE Enforcement Priorities
Despite a record number of removals in fiscal year 2010, GOP Senators Sessions, Cornyn, Kyl, Grassley, Hatch, Coburn and Graham fired off yet another letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano yesterday, accusing the administration of a “lax approach” to immigration enforcement and “selectively enforcing” immigration laws. The letter, which cites a Houston Chronicle article quoting nearly 400 dismissed removal cases in Houston immigration courts in recent months, follows new Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) priorities of pursuing serious criminals and a countrywide systematic review of certain immigration court cases. The conservative Senators complaint, however, is not new. In fact, it’s just the latest in a string of letters accusing the administration of everything from “de facto amnesty” to giving detainees an “overly-comfortable place to reside.” The senators, it seems, are out for more than a fair, functioning and prioritized immigration enforcement system. Read More
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