07/29/11 This week, at the National Council of La Raza's (NCLR) conference, Barack Obama once again told a crowd of Latino voters that on immigration, he couldn't just bypass Congress to change the laws. Same old, same old, right? Except this time, the crowd responded in one unified voice. "Yes, You Can! Yes, You Can!" youth leaders, organized by United We Dream and Presente.org, chanted.
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07/29/11 This week, the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the nation's largest Latino civil rights organization, held their annual conference and invited all Presidential candidates. Here's a short summary of what happened: President Obama showed up. The entire Republican field did not.
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07/27/11 "Yes, you can! Yes, you can!" Those were the words that were chanted at the NCLR conference as Obama said that he couldn't just bypass Congress and change the laws on his own. The truth is that he actually can. Clearly, he's not getting the message that on immigration, some bold, executive action is desperately needed.
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07/27/11 At the beginning of this year's NCLR conference (that just concluded yesterday), attendees were asked what issues matter most to them and how well they think President Obama has been addressing them. The straw poll's results hammer at the point that poll after poll after poll have shown that immigration is the most important issue for Latino voters.
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07/27/11 Yesterday, Rep. Lamar Smith held a hearing on the Hinder the Administration's Legalization Temptation (HALT) Act. This is the legislation designed to bully Obama into not using his discretion to prevent deportations. Smith wanted Senator David Vitter as his expert witness on prosecutorial discretion. That backfired.
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07/26/11 Today, at 3 PM EST at Lafayette Square, in front of the White House, immigrant advocates from Casa de Maryland and Familia Latina Unida will by joined by Rep. Luis Gutierrez and other allies to send our President an important message: STOP THE DEPORTATIONS.
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07/26/11 Representative Lamar Smith and Rep. Elton Gallegly have really outdone themselves this time.
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07/26/11 Tomorrow, Lamar Smith will hold a hearing on the HALT Act, legislation designed to bully President Obama. The HALT Act would prevent the use of discretion by the President in immigration cases. Smith's expert witness is Senator David Vitter, who knows a thing or two about prosecutorial discretion.
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07/25/11 Minutes before the President took to the podium, NCLR president Janet Murguia reminded him of his “unfinished business,” pointing out that practically every person sitting in the audience has been affected by America’s broken immigration system. More than that, the Latino community has also been devastated by the record number of deportations, noting one particular [...]
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07/25/11 At the NCLR Conference, President Obama's claim that he couldn't use his authority to prevent deportations was met with the chant, "Yes, You Can!"
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07/25/11 Today, President Obama is scheduled to speak at NCLR's annual conference in Washington, DC. Three years ago, when President Obama was still candidate Obama, he spoke at the same conference in San Diego, saying: "I think it's time for a president who won't walk away from something as important as comprehensive reform just because it becomes politically unpopular."
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07/24/11 On Monday, President Barack Obama will make a luncheon speech at the National Conference of La Raza's (NCLR) annual conference in Washington, DC. While most of the political class is mesmerized by the debt ceiling negotiations, millions of Latinos will be focused on what the President says – or doesn't say – about immigration reform.
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07/22/11 Georgia is surely becoming a state that has food, but no immigrants to cook it, and is abundant in fruit, but has nobody to pick it. How extreme do things need to get before lawmakers open their eyes to the damage the state's new anti-immigration law, House Bill 87, is incurring?
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07/22/11 Amid increased non-criminal deportations, harsher enforcement measures, and a move designed by the GOP to take some of his prosecutorial discretion powers away via the HALT act, President Obama is slotted to address the Hispanic community — a group of voters vital to his reelection campaign — at the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) [...]
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07/21/11 Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) has really thin skin. He just can't help himself and has to respond to any article that mentions him and/or immigration policy. These are not baseless allegations. Even well-known news columnist, Ruben Navarrette, called him out on it, writing that Lamar Smith "creates his own reality on immigration." Navarrette didn't have to wait long before Rep. Smith had drafted and published a response in the Ventura County Star.
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07/21/11 People are reacting to Alabama's anti-immigrant bill, even though most parts of it won't take effect until September 1st. Undocumented immigrants are fleeing the state, and it's kind of very similar to what has already happened in Georgia.
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07/20/11 The Senate sponsor of the legislation that would strip President Obama of prosecutorial discretion (the HALT Act) is none other than the Senator with the most direct and personal knowledge of discretion: David Vitter.
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07/20/11 Alabama, which is 2.8 percent Latino, has a race problem again. Dark people are on the verge of taking over and like George Wallace and Bull Connor before them, today's politicos in Alabama aren't having it. "Anything short of shooting them," one politician has said from Alabama. From another: "Empty the clip and do what has to be done."
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07/20/11 Bloomberg reports that a "first-of-its-kind Immigration Enforcement Review Board" is being established in this peachy, anti-immigrant state. It's described by some as a "a mini-McCarthy panel."
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07/19/11 A welcome development in the Secure Communities saga: A federal judge in New York has demanded that the feds hand over some "potentially embarrassing" documents relating to the Secure Communities program.
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07/18/11 New public opinion analysis by Latino Decisions demonstrates that immigration remains important and motivating for Latino voters in the United States, especially because of their personal connection to the debate. As the polling makes clear, the rise in deportations and the lack of action on comprehensive immigration reform will directly affect Latino voters' political choices in 2012.
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07/18/11 Rep. Elton Gallegly, whose ultimate goal is the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants, and his former colleague, JD Watts, continue their misleading cheerleading for E-Verify. They've got similar talking points, but both failed to mention the rotting fields in Georgia, thanks to a state E-Verify law.
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07/18/11 Following a major USA Today story analyzing crime in U.S. cities along the border with Mexico, Governor Jan Brewer (R-AZ) and Senators John Cornyn (R-TX), Jon Kyl (R-AZ), and John McCain (R-AZ) would do well to heed the famous advice of Daniel Patrick Moynihan: "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts."
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07/15/11 Yesterday we wrote a blog post about Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX)'s latest anti-immigration bill, the Hinder the Administration's Legalization Temptation, or HALT, Act. The bill would strip President Obama of the power to set priorities on immigration enforcement, meaning he would be limited in his ability to grant stays of deportation for certain refugees or DREAM students.
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07/15/11 In the latest news regarding undocumented immigrant students, the California Senate has moved forward with a state version of the DREAM Act. Yesterday, state senators approved AB-130, by Assemblyman Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles).
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07/15/11 As it turns out, undocumented workers aren't really big fans of being targeted while they're doing their job, and farmers aren't so keen on having their workers picked on either. As a result of anti-immigrant legislators passing legislation that scares off undocumented workers, farmers are suffering, and a multi-billion dollar industry is at a significant loss.
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07/15/11 According to the ACLU, Rep. Lamar Smith's deceptively named "Keep Our Communities Safe Act" bill "would in fact lead to the detention of thousands more immigrants for years without first having a hearing before a judge."
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