Restrictionists
What is the Federation for American Immigration Reform?
America's Voice--a pro-immigrant organization waging a communications campaign for immigration reform--has launched a new video as part of a series of moves to shed light on the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) and expose it for what it is: a bona fide hate group. Read More
Lou Dobbs and Immigrant Hate Groups Put Fear First, Leave Solutions Behind
When did extreme become mainstream?--That's the question immigrant advocates, labor leaders, civil rights groups, and Latino organizations are asking in a full page ad in Capitol Hill newspapers this week as supporters of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) march into the offices of Congress, demanding an impractical and hateful agenda of mass deportations, worksite raids, and other expensive and ultimately ineffective approaches as part of their "Hold Their Feet to the Fire" gathering. The September 10 broadcast of CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight program will further stoke FAIR's flames as it airs live from the site of the annual "Hold Their Feet to the Fire" event, along with dozens (or so FAIR claims) of radio hosts from across the country. Hateful extremism is a difficult challenge and sad reality that our nation faces. However, its appearance in mainstream politics and media marks a disturbing social regression for the United States as hate groups and extremists are allowed to define the debate on immigration. Read More
Rep. Virgil Goode’s Attack on Children of Immigrants
Rep. Virgil Goode repeatedly used the derogatory term “anchor babies” during a Wednesday debate. Last week, the habitually offensive Representative Virgil Goode (R-VA) callously attacked the US-born children of immigrants. Goode repeatedly used the term "anchor baby," a notoriously derogatory term employed by anti-immigrant organizations and restrictionists to describe the children of non-citizens who were born in the US and therefore "facilitate" immigration through family reunification under the longstanding provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. In his attack, Goode claimed: Only those who want to coddle and cater to the illegals say that they are beneficial to the workforce...And I gave you one very specific: the anchor baby. Which means you come over in this country, have a kid, and the kid's an automatic citizen. A huge cost. Yet Goode's analysis is naive, simplistic and plainly misinformed. Aside from using dehumanizing rhetoric to suggest the government should repeal the 14th amendment which provides for natural-born citizenship, Rep. Goode overlooks the national benefits of family-based immigration: Read More
DNC Live: National Hispanic Leadership Agenda
Yesterday the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda (NHLA)--a nonpartisan association of Hispanic organizations and leaders--announced a bold new policy agenda at the DNC, calling upon elected officials, candidates, political parties, the media and the general public to consider and adopt the NHLA platform. The Hispanic Policy Agenda addresses prime policy issues facing Hispanics in six main issue areas: Education Civil rights Immigration Economic Empowerment Health Government Accountability NHLA Chair and President of the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund (MALDEF), John Trasvina, began by introducing the purpose of the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda as being the establishment of a set of principles and priorities that the candidates need to adopt if they want to gain the support of the Latinos. "We need to make sure that the truth is spoken about immigration and the needs of the Latino community and we don't let others define what we are," said Trasvina. Read More
DNC Live: Janet Murguia Concludes NDN Immigration Forum
Janet Murguia, CEO of President of National Council of La Raza was the final speaker at NDN's Immigration Reform and the Next Administration forum event at the DNC. Murguia wanted to add another dimension to the conversation by pointing out that as a Latina, she and her fellow Latinos care about a lot of issues--yet immigration is the single issue that crosses across the community and is mobilizing Latinos across the country. Read More
DNC Live: NDN Immigration Forum Resumes with Frank Sharry
Frank Sharry, Executive Director of America's Voice was the third speaker featured at NDN's Immigration Reform and the Next Administration forum event. Sharry began by providing a definition for attrition through enforcement: From the policy point of view, attrition through enforcement assumes we have good laws and bad people and what we have to do is enforce the good laws so that the bad people go away. The idea is to make life so miserable so people will leave. He referred to it as more accurately being a form of "non-violent ethnic cleansing"--making a bad problem worse. Read More
DNC Live: Marco Lopez Continues NDN Immigration Discussion
The next speaker at the NDN's Immigration Reform and the Next Administration forum event at the DNC was Marco Lopez of Arizona, a rising star in American politics. Lopez talked about what Arizona has had to do "creatively" to tackle the growing trend of migration from South to North, acknowledging that Arizona--as one of the fastest growing states--needs workers. Read More
DNC Live: NDN Immigration Forum with Zoe Lofgren
NDN is currently holding a forum on Immigration Reform and the Next Administration at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. NDN President Simon Rosenberg began the conversation acknowledging that the Democrats have "woken up" to the relevance of the immigrant voting population in the upcoming election. NDN Vice-president, Andres Ramirez, introduced Congresswoman and Chairman of the House Committee on Immigration Reform, Zoe Lofgren of California. Read More
Phoenix Mayor Demands Immigration Reform at Police Conference
This week the Police Foundation sponsored a two day conference, “The Role of Local Police: Striking a balance between immigration enforcement and civil liberties." One of the highlights was a speech by Mayor Phil Gordon of Phoenix, a vocal supporter of immigration reform and opponent of the antics of Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Maricopa County. Gordon understands firsthand both the impact that undocumented immigration has had on his community and the impact that using the wrong policies to try to fix a very real problem have had. Drop houses, kidnapping operations, smuggling, and trafficking are all issues the Phoenix has to deal with on a daily basis, and they are direct results of the illegality wrought by the current broken immigration system. He also spoke about costs of enforcing immigration law -- the financial costs, the public safety costs, and the human costs. Read More
Olympic Win Highlights Immigration Challenges
On Tuesday night, Henry Cejudo nabbed an Olympic gold medal for the U.S. and realized the dream that his mother, Nelly Rico, carried with her as she crossed the border from Mexico over twenty years ago. Rico—an undocumented immigrant—encouraged her children to work hard and aim high. Now her son is an American hero and the youngest American wrestler to win a gold in the Olympics. Read More
All gifts are matched dollar for dollar
No one should face the immigration system alone
