03/31/11 A Capitol Hill press conference early this morning, hosted by Democratic Reps. Luis Gutierrez (IL), Mike Honda (CA), Raul Grijalva (AZ), Jan Schakowsky (IL), Keith Ellison (MN), and Judy Chu (CA) launched the "Campaign for American Children and Families," an immigration reform advocacy tour that will begin this weekend in Rhode Island and continue through at least May.
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03/31/11 Before his death in 1993, César Chávez was asked by a union member how he wanted to be remembered; he replied, "If you want to remember me, organize!" Chavez, who inspired millions of people to commit themselves to social and economic justice, would have turned 84 today.
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03/31/11 In expected DHS-like fashion, the Bureau for Citizenship and Immigration Services has resumed rejecting green card applications filed by bi-national same-sex couples.
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03/30/11 In his State of the Union Address, President Obama said that it makes "no sense to deport talented, responsible young people." So then why are young DREAMers, like Mario Perez, still getting deported?
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03/30/11 Good news in our ongoing coverage of the Emily Ruiz case: Emily Ruiz, the four-year-old US citizen who was separated from her parents and returned by U.S. immigration authorities to Guatemala, has finally made it back home and was reunited with her parents early this morning.
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03/29/11 After much grief and outrage, Emily Ruiz, the four-year-old US citizen who was deported to Guatemala, is on her way back to Long Island to be reunited with her family.
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03/29/11 Congratulations are in order as good news came through yesterday for bi-national same-sex couples.
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03/28/11 Following in the footsteps of Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Virgil Peck, and the Three Amigos on Immigration (Reps. Smith (R-TX), Gallegly (R-CA), and King (R-IA)), all of whom have been using their elected positions to hate on immigrants, Shirley Matson, a tax assessor in Nevada, found herself in the hot seat last week when she decided to jump in with some incendiary comments of her own.
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03/28/11 Ahead of the one-year anniversary of SB 1070, the Center for American Progress released a new report entitled "A Rising Tide or a Shrinking Pie: The Economic Impact of Legalization Versus Deportation," analyzing what would happen if SB 1070 were carried out to its full intended effect and every single undocumented immigrant was purged from Arizona, and would happen if the state instead decided to legalize all of its undocumented.
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03/28/11 Last week, with the release of the new census numbers, DC's political pundits took notice of the growing Latino population and realized that because of immigration, the Republican Party has a major problem on its hands.
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03/25/11 The case of Emily Ruiz, the 4-year old US citizen who was separated from her parents and returned to Guatemala, has been generating widespread media attention since it broke a couple of weeks ago. America's Voice hosted a conference call today to discuss her story, featuring pro bono Ruiz family attorney David Sperling, Special Counsel Jeanne Butterfield, and our own Executive Director, Frank Sharry.
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03/25/11 Manolo Lem is a young Chinese-American who would qualify for the DREAM Act. Brought to the US from Venezuela when he was just two years old, Manolo has lived nearly his entire life in Tennessee, graduated from high school with honors, and earned a BA from Middle Tennessee State University.
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03/25/11 Probably the biggest political news story from the release of new census data was the growth of the Latino community -- and the corresponding political power of the Latino vote. As you'll see below, reporters and pundits around the country focuses on the political implications of these changing demographics.
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03/24/11 Looks like the hard work and persistence of some New York-based DREAMers (and activists from all around the nation) paid off. New York now joins Maryland, California, Illinois, and Connecticut as states that are trying to push state versions of the DREAM Act.
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03/24/11 New data from the U.S. Census Bureau highlights the dramatic increase of the Latino population over the past decade, in both traditional "gateway" states and throughout the nation, with Latinos now comprising more than 1 in 6 Americans. According to Associated Press analysis of the new data, minority population growth makes up 90 percent of the total U.S. population growth since 2000.
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03/24/11 The Washington Post's editorial praising the Secure Communities program ("How to improve an immigration status check," March 20th) glossed over some very important details. If the program was targeted at actual criminals, it wouldn't be so controversial and police agencies wouldn't be asking to opt-out.
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03/23/11 Former employees gathered today outside the Columbia Heights Chipotle in Washington, DC, to protest the restaurant's unfair labor practices, demanding apologies, explanations, and owed wages.
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03/23/11 Looks like the hard work and persistence of some New York-based dreamers (and around the country, really) paid off. New York now joins Maryland, California, Illinois, and Connecticut as states that are trying to push state versions of the DREAM Act, a federal bill that sadly wasn't passed by the Senate late last year even though it was popularly supported by the public and Congress.
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03/23/11 If you Google the terms "Jeff Flake" and "immigration," you'll see numerous articles about a strong advocate for comprehensive immigration reform. But, once it became clear that Flake was running for Senate in Arizona's GOP primary, that began to change.
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03/23/11 On the last stop of his visit to Latin America, in El Salvador, President Barack Obama declared that "we have to make sure that we've got a legal immigration system that is effective and is not frustrating for families, doesn't divide families." Interesting enough, it almost seemed as if he were talking about the case of 4-year-old girl Emily Samantha Ruiz, who was born in the United States to undocumented parents.
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03/22/11 Hostility from a key voting demographic, weakened ties between law enforcement and communities, and boycotts that chill the local economy have all been consequences of Arizona's decision to pass the infamously stringent SB 1070 anti-immigration bill last year...Yet apparently the state of Georgia wants in on the action, with both its House and Senate chambers this month passing Arizona-copycat bills.
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03/22/11 As it turns out, it wasn't over. Last week, America's Voice collected almost 4,800 signatures to investigate Kansas Rep. Virgil Peck's comments about shooting undocumented immigrants from helicopters.
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03/21/11 Last week, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights released their December 2010 report revealing namely that detention is a disproportionate measure and recommends an end to the 287(g) program
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03/21/11 Last week, New York State DREAMers went to Albany to lobbying members of the New York State Legislature for a state DREAM Act. Albor Ruiz from the New York Daily News profiled César Vargas and his work on DREAM.
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03/18/11 The news out of Arizona is that its Republican-dominated state Senate rejected the latest series of harsh immigration measures. For once, the Arizona GOP said no to their leader, State Sen. Russell Pearce, who wanted to enact a package that has been called SB 1070 on steroids by us and by others in the beltway.
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03/18/11 Since Christmas, Mario Aregullin has been sitting in a Georgia detention center. Though he's been in the United States since he was a baby, he was forced to spend Christmas, New Year's, and Valentine's Day away from his family, friends, and his bride-to-be, Brandi.
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03/18/11 Today, Politico reports on new polling of Latinos in California that confirms those fears. There's not a lot of love for Republicans.
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