10/30/09 America's top religious and law enforcement leaders are taking a strong stance in favor of sensible immigration reform and it's made the anti-immigrant crowd very nervous. In response, the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), the anti-immigrant lobby's "think tank," released two reports, written by the same author, claiming that Los Angeles police chief William Bratton and Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Archbishop Emeritus of Washington, don't know what they're talking about.
Read More »

10/30/09 Jennifer McFayden over at About.com writes: "Peaceful, maybe, but ALIPAC president William Gheen is known for his hard line approach." She quotes him saying telling Congressman Gutierrez (D-IL) to ""Make my day punk!"(Seriously?) and then goes on to say, "I don't know what poll Gheen is using, but if he's quoting the recent CNN poll that's making the rounds, he might want to look at this blog post from America's Voice."
Read More »

10/29/09 From Joaquin Guerra, over at the SEIU Blog-- the latest action in response to the Vitter-Bennet Amendment: "Some politicians come up with dumb ideas. Some come up with impractical ideas that would cost taxpayers millions of dollars. And then there are those lawmakers with crazy proposals that would violate the United States Constitution."
Read More »

10/29/09 Together, we raised the $16,000 needed to run our TV ad on CNN – telling the station to drop Lou Dobbs's one-sided, anti-immigrant "news" show. Unfortunately, CNN isn't having it. They called to say they won't take our money and have refused to air our "Drop the Hate" TV ad.
Read More »

10/29/09 Anti-immigration groups and pundits cling to phrases like "Illegal Alien" because they only focus on foreignness and danger. These extreme factions are all about casting immigrants as what ails our society, conjuring up demons upon which to focus national ire, and perpetuating a subhuman category of being. It's a convenient distraction from things that are actually endangering our nation. A new web-only series from ColorLines called "Torn Apart by Deportation" is the perfect antidote to people like CNN's Lou Dobbs.
Read More »

10/29/09 The Minutemen PAC, has gotten deeply involved in a New York Congressional race. Andrea Nill reports: "Doug Hoffman, the Conservative Party candidate for New York's traditionally Republican 23rd District, has just won the right-wing support of the Minuteman Political Action Committee — the political action arm of a "nativist extremist" armed vigilante group. The Minuteman PAC is currently running Independent Expenditure radio spots and predicts that Hoffman is "positioned to win a landslide victory" over Republican Party nominee Dede Scozzafava." The Minutemen came under increasing scrutiny several months ago when a Minuteman activist, Shawna Forde, was investigated for the alleged murder of nine-year-old Brisenia Flores.
Read More »

10/29/09 The Huffington Post reported yesterday that a Senate resolution honoring the Hispanic media passed without a single Republican co-sponsor. The resolution, declaring October 25th-31st "National Hispanic Media Week," was on hold for several days while Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) struggled in vain to find Republican co-sponsors for the resolution, Senate sources told America's Voice. Senator Reid ultimately introduced it along with a group of his fellow Democrats, and it was adopted swiftly.
Read More »

10/28/09 Obama is asking New Jersey's Latino voters to back Governor Jon Corzine in his bid for reelection. How? In a 60 second campaign radio ad that went on the air today – half in English, and the other half in Spanish.
Read More »

10/28/09 One of the most impressive films about the immigration debate to come out this year, 9500 Liberty is hitting the West Coast with a splash. The film premiers tomorrow night, October 29, in the Bay Area at the Sundance Kabuki Theater. There's more reason than ever to watch the film in San Francisco, according to an email forwarded by one of the screening's main sponsors, Netroots Nation: As the city is embroiled in a tense debate about its immigration policy, the documentary film 9500 Liberty comes to San Francisco to share one extraordinary chapter in the larger immigration debate with the Bay Area community.
Read More »

10/28/09 Here's a splashy headline CNN released last week: "CNN Poll: 3 out of 4 want illegal immigration decreased." Sounds pretty tough on immigrants, right? Rough week for common-sense immigration reform? Actually, no. See, CNN asked whether Americans wanted more or less illegal immigration. Since most advocates agree that more illegal immigration would be undesirable, this question doesn't say much. If you do the math, CNN could have just as easily released their poll with this headline: "CNN Poll: 2 of 3 Americans want immigrants legalized, not deported."
Read More »

10/27/09 Yesterday, in "Warning: Talking Sanely about Immigration May Be Hazardous," we reported on Sacramento's Police Chief Rick Braziel, and his measured, rational approach to immigration and community policing. Today, we are happy to highlight another key voice on this issue. Outgoing LAPD Police Chief William J. Bratton is a member of the rapidly-growing network of police chiefs across the nation calling for a serious immigration overhaul.
Read More »

10/27/09 Today, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), American Rights at Work (ARAW), and the National Employment Law Project (NELP) are releasing a report, "ICED Out: How Immigration Enforcement Has Interfered with Workers' Rights," which documents, according to the press advisory, "how the federal government's approach to immigration enforcement in the recent past has severely undermined efforts to protect workers' rights, to the detriment of immigrant and native-born workers alike." The reports examines the Bush Administration's workplace immigration enforcement actions between 2006 and 2008 and it describes, in devastating detail, the problems associated with prioritizing immigration enforcement over labor law enforcement.
Read More »

10/27/09 So, now we're ticketing people for not speaking English? No, really. Daphne Eviatar of the Washington Independent reports:"Dallas police wrongly ticketed at least 39 drivers for not speaking English over the last three years, reports the Dallas Morning News." It seems Dallas police were confused when, after pulling drivers over for other suspected violations, the police checked their in-car computers and a pull-down menu listed the "non-English speaking driver" charge as an option...
Read More »

10/26/09 Today, the New York Immigration Coalition and the New York Community Alliance released questionnaire responses from Michael Bloomberg, Bill Thompson, and Dein Fein – three of New York City's eight mayoral candidates – on a number of immigration issues. According to their joint press statement today: The responses document the candidates' positions on a host of immigrant issues, from how they will tackle the high-school dropout crisis facing English language learners to what they will do to fight for immigration reform at the national level. The candidates also answered questions about making adult English classes available to more immigrant New Yorkers, the city's role in immigration enforcement, health care access, affordable housing, and other immigrant concerns.
Read More »

10/26/09 Last week Stephen Magagnini and Susan Ferriss of the Sacramento Bee first reported that Police Chief Rick Braziel had become the latest voice of a growing number of police chiefs across the nation calling for a serious immigration overhaul. These police chiefs are sick and tired of what they're seeing on the ground, a festering situation rife with abuse made worse by politicians' lack of courage to tackle real immigration reform.
Read More »

10/23/09 Today Rep. Joe Crowley (D-NY) joined the growing chorus of voices calling for comprehensive immigration reform. In a telephonic briefing with New York and national advocates, including the New York Immigration Coalition, Crowley stressed the urgency of the issue, saying: "This is a moral imperative – the time is now."
Read More »

10/23/09 In the past few weeks, we've been calling for CNN to drop their controversial, anti-immigrant "news show," Lou Dobbs Tonight, along with organizations across the country. In anticipation of CNN's highly-publicized "Latino in America" series, many of these groups were also eager to see what steps, if any, CNN would take to address their own involvement in the difficulty of being Latino in America. On the eve of the "Latino in America" premier, CNN was protested by the very same demographic it was supposed to entice.
Read More »

10/23/09 A U.S. News and World Report article this week speaks to the growing chorus of religious conservatives standing up for comprehensive immigration reform: Many of the same faith-based groups attacking Obama and the Democrats (on other issues), including the National Association of Evangelicals, the Southern Baptist Convention, and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, are poised to become major players in the president's coming push for comprehensive immigration reform, which would include a path to citizenship for many illegal immigrants. "There is a strong biblical teaching about showing hospitality to the stranger and the alien," says (National Association of Evangelicals chief lobbyist Galen) Carey. Carey's organization, the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), made news earlier this month when its board unanimously passed a resolution in support of reform.
Read More »

10/22/09 UPDATE Friday, October 23 11:00 am: Hate crimes legislation now headed to President Obama for his signature, according to CNN.com. Note: Cross-posted at Jack and Jill Politics. CNN began airing their highly-publicized series, “Latino in America,” last night, and I have to say, their coverage of the uptick in hate crimes against people of color [...]
Read More »

10/22/09 For the most part, it's been a good week for immigration reform. The Senate approved a measure that will end the "Widow Penalty," which rescinded applications for U.S. residency if one's spouse of two years or less years dies, and on Tuesday, as RaceWire reports, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed legislation that restores the right of due process to immigrant youth. Now for the not-so good news: The U.S. Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has decided to modify, not cancel, its many 287(g) agreements, as the Colorado Independent reports. Cause for celebration on this change may not yet be warranted. The proposed modification does not address the problems inherent to the provision.
Read More »

10/22/09 Some of us first heard of Hota Ferschke, a Japanese widow of American soldier, Sergeant Michael Ferschke, at the immigration reform rally held here in Washington DC, last Tuesday, October 13. Her story was one of many heart-wrenching examples of our nation's broken immigration system – something she and her mother-in-law, Robin Ferschke, have been fighting hard to fix. The backstory? It's a love story, interrupted...Hota and Sergeant Michael Ferschke were married while the Sergeant was stationed in Iraq. At the time, Hota had just learned that she was pregnant with Michael's child, adorable "little Mikee" pictured to the right. However, because they were married by "paper proxy," and not in person, a 1950's-era immigration law would not recognize the couple's marriage.
Read More »

10/21/09 Ronda Racha Penrice sums up much of the controversy we posted on earlier this evening in "Will movement to remove Lou Dobbs overshadow Soledad O'Brien's Latino in America at CNN?" "For many Latinos, CNN's Latino in America is not their primary concern; Lou Dobbs is... Many within the Latino community, in particular, feel that Dobbs has used his show to fuel anti-Latino sentiments, contributing to hate crimes against Latinos, as well as ongoing rejection of Latinos within this nation.
Read More »

10/21/09 The mounting efforts (including our "Drop Dobbs" TV ad) underway to hold CNN accountable for Lou Dobbs are clearly having an impact. In their coverage of CNN's "Latino in America" series, the Associated Press reports: "CNN is airing a four-hour special on Latinos in America this week that ignores its own commentator Lou Dobbs, whose persistent advocacy against illegal immigration has angered many Hispanics."
Read More »

10/21/09 Yesterday, on a vote of 79-19 on the conference report on the Department of Homeland Security Fiscal Year 2010 Appropriations bill , the Senate repealed the "widow penalty" – a measure that was enacted 71 years ago, prohibiting a widowed, foreign spouse to file for citizenship (for themselves and their non-US citizen children) in the event that they had been married for less than two years. According to the New York Times: The new provision does not directly address the government's definition of marriage, but it allows foreigners married to Americans for less than two years to submit their own petition for residency within two years of the spouse's death, as long as they have not remarried and can prove a good-faith marriage.
Read More »

10/20/09 Last night, CNN's Rick Sanchez called out Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, AZ, for admitting to racial profiling during his "crime suppression sweeps" of Latino neighborhoods. At the end of the interview, Sheriff Joe basically thumbs his nose at Federal officials who have criticized Arpaio's sweeps (despite renewing cooperation agreements with him): "SANCHEZ: You're going to sit there and tell the feds, you don't care what they say, you're going to do it your way and you're going to do it when you want to do it?"
Read More »

10/20/09 The New York Times editorialized today: "As required by law, the Census Bureau gave Congress the exact wording of the survey's 10 questions in early April 2008 — more than 18 months ago. Changing it now to meet Mr. Vitter's demand would delay the count, could skew the results and would certainly make it even harder to persuade minorities to participate. It would also be hugely expensive. The Commerce Department says that redoing the survey would cost hundreds of millions of dollars..."
Read More »

10/20/09 Immigrant advocates are incensed that a number of retailers have decided to sell cartoonish"illegal alien" costumes in their stores this Halloween. Joshua Hoyt of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights even urged a boycott of stores, according to the Chicago Tribune: "When a corporation dehumanizes immigrants, the best thing is to stop buying from it," he said.
Read More »