11/30/11 While Newt Gingrich does not have the right policy answer on how to fix our broken immigration system, his recent immigration remarks have helped isolate the key question that fellow GOP candidates like Mitt Romney and Rick Perry were hoping to avoid – what to do about the 11 million undocumented immigrants currently living and working in America?
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11/30/11 The AP reports that the agriculture industry is worried about enforcement measures like E-Verify, a flawed tool which would evaluate whether or not an employee is legal to work in the United States.
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11/30/11 On a press call today, experts in Latino politics and public opinion discussed the recent back and forth over immigration in the Republican presidential primary contest and helped to put the debate over immigration into its proper policy and political context.
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11/29/11 Over the past couple weeks, immigration has become one of the most contentious issues in the GOP presidential contest. Mitt Romney has tried to portray himself as the hardest of the hard core anti-immigrant voices in the race. He has become the leading voice for mass deportation. Romney's campaign has used the immigration issue to attack Rick Perry, and now, he's going after Newt Gingrich.
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11/28/11 Earlier this fall, we wrote about the hoops that the 2012 GOP presidential candidates were jumping through to earn the endorsement of notoriously anti-immigrant Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Now, in what the Atlantic calls "one of the many mind-bending absurdities of the 2012 race," Arpaio has chosen a fellow dance partner: Texas Governor Rick Perry.
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11/28/11 Mitt Romney has officially staked out the most extreme immigration position possible: the removal of every undocumented immigrant in the nation.
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11/23/11 In case you missed it, immigration really erupted as an issue at last night's foreign policy Republican debate. For months, the candidates have fallen back on fence-first and border-security-first sound bites to answer to answer the various immigration questions that have come up. Last night, they were finally forced to answer questions about what they would do with the 11 million undocumented immigrants currently settled in the United States.
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11/22/11 We woke up this morning after an amazing "One Family, One Alabama" campaign launch against HB 56 yesterday, which cumulated in a massive rally at the 16th St Baptist Church with a crowd roughly 3,400 people strong. Among those present at the rally included U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) and the 10-member strong Congressional delegation.
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11/22/11 According to some supporters of Alabama's worst-in-the-nation immigration law – figures such as State Senator Scott Beason, Congressman Mo Brooks (R-AL), U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL), anti-immigrant leader Mark Krikorian, and immigration law architect and current Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R) – the state's "papers, please" anti-immigration law is working exactly as they intended.
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11/22/11 The wide base of support that we saw yesterday outside the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama is a clear sign that we who oppose HB 56 are the mainstream, while State Sen. Scott Beason and those who support the law are the extreme.
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11/21/11 It's a big day in Alabama with the launch of the campaign against HB 56. You can follow the action via UStream and Twitter.
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11/21/11 Today, the Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice (ACIJ) will be hosting a series of events to kick off their campaign against HB 56. With eleven members of Congress scheduled to attend, it’s certain to be a day of intensity and energy. Even though you might not be in Alabama, here are five easy ways that [...]
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11/20/11 The Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice will kick off the campaign against HB 56 at 2:00 PM Central Time tomorrow with a news conference in advance of an Ad Hoc Congressional Hearing being held at the Council Chambers on the 3rd Floor of Birmingham City Hall. Present will be a number of key members of Congress, including immigration reform champion, Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-IL), who will listen to stories of those who have been affected by the law
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11/19/11 More than a hundred people rallied peacefully on the steps of the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery this morning, demanding an end to Alabama’s punitive HB 56 immigration law as nearly 50,000 petitions were handed over to La Jefa Radio host José Antonio Castro.
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11/18/11 Coming to survey Alabama this weekend are three well-known and well-respected hip hop artists: Rhymefest, Jasiri-X, and Paradise, known as "Arkitech" of the X-clan (someone who was described to me as one of the "forefathers of hip-hop."
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11/18/11 There are increasing signs of serious economic fallout from Alabama's harsh anti-immigrant law, HB 56. There are growing calls, even from some GOP Senators, to change HB 56. The Anniston Star says repeal it.
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11/18/11 The controversy continues over the Alabama anti-immigration law, as leaders report on additional damage to the state?s reputation, economy, and efforts to move on from its Civil Rights era legacy...
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11/17/11 Talking Point Memo's Evan McMorris-Santoro reports on how anti-immigrant SB 1070 has changed the political landscape in Arizona -- and not in the way its sponsors would have expected. Arizona "really is a swing state in 2012."
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11/16/11 Yesterday, former Republican congressman and current Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam criticized the harsh anti-immigration laws passed in neighboring states Alabama and Georgia, pointing out that the laws are already having real economic consequences and arguing that Florida show not follow this path.
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11/16/11 Alabama State Senator Scott Beason (R) has been getting a lot of attention lately. None of it good. He was one of the architects of the state's viciously anti-immigrant law. Yesterday, Beason was in the news again. He was booted as Chair of the Senate Rules Committee.
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11/15/11 The implementation of Alabama's HB 56, the harshest anti-immigrant law in the nation, has touched off a humanitarian crisis felt throughout the state and across the nation. Families, paralyzed by fear and uncertainty, are fleeing the state in droves and children are afraid to go school or even leave their homes.
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11/15/11 Today is Day 8 of La Jefa Radio's "14 Cities, 14 Days, One Family, One Alabama" tour, with Program Director José Antonio Castro and radio personality Orlando Rosa broadcasting from Clanton, Alabama. The pair began their walk across Alabama last week in order to bring attention to the HB 56 immigration law.
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11/15/11 Last night, on NBC's "Rock Center with Brian Williams," reporter Kate Snow did a segment on what Williams called the "huge controversy" in Alabama caused by the passage of HB 56. Snow's report showed the dire impacts of HB 56 on Alabama's Latino families and the state's farmers.
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11/15/11 Opinion writers and columnists are still discussing the landmark Russell Pearce recall in Arizona last week, but we wanted to take time and make sure that other anti-immigrant extremists drummed out of office also had their day.
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11/14/11 Over the weekend, The New York Times' Julia Preston reported on the Obama administration's new deportation policy. And, her article echoed concerns we've been hearing: A new Obama administration policy to avoid deportations of illegal immigrants who are not criminals has been applied very unevenly across the country.
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11/14/11 The fallout continues over last week's recall election of Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce (R), the architect of that state's SB 1070 anti-immigration law. As analysts ask what the result might mean for the future of anti-immigrant extremism and for Arizona's potential competitiveness in the 2012 elections, Pearce's ideological allies are spinning the results to a foregone conclusion.
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11/14/11 Last week on Wednesday, Antonieta Cadiz of La Opinion, the nation's leading Spanish language newspaper, asked the President for his opinion on Alabama's controversial law, HB 56. Obama was emphatic in his remarks, saying "It's a bad law. The idea that we have children afraid to go to school, because they feel afraid that their immigration status will lead to being detained…It's wrong…. This makes the law, not just anti-immigrant, but I believe it doesn't match our essential values as a country."
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