04/30/12 We’ve been publishing a series of posts from the DREAMers of the Campaign for an American DREAM.  In March, they set off from San Francisco to begin a 3,000-mile, 8-month walk to Washington, DC to call attention to the DREAM Act and the need for immigration reform. Today’s post is from Nicolas Gonzalez, a DREAMer from [...]
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04/30/12 The general election has started in earnest, which means the etch-a-sketching has begun. Last week on CNN, Anderson Cooper 360 aired a segment probing into Mitt Romney’s recent (and changing) positions on immigration, and what he has said about the subject as he travels from conservative South Carolina to Latino-vote heavy Florida.  He’s said that [...]
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04/30/12 Last week, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released its long-awaited response to last year’s report from the Secure Communities Task Force. Secure Communities, the Obama Administration’s signature immigration enforcement program, has been fiercely criticized by law enforcement experts, state governors and legislatures, community leaders and members of Congress as a deportation dragnet that has systematically [...]
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04/27/12 It’s certainly been an intense week for immigration advocates and activists. There’s been an enormous amount of attention to the issue in the traditional media. On Wednesday night, Rachel Maddow took an in-depth look at the politics of immigration reform, SB 1070, Mitt Romney, and the hard-core anti-immigrant work of Kris Kobach and Michael Hethmon. [...]
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04/27/12 Today, Dream Activist brings us news of a ninth grader who is scheduled to be deported this coming Sunday. According to their petition: Victoria was brought to the US when she was only 3 years old. Carina, Victoria’s mother wanted to give her little girl a better future, something she couldn’t do in Argentina. She [...]
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04/27/12 This has been a historic week on immigration policy in an election year.  Below is the America’s Voice take on some of the major political storylines surrounding immigration. If upheld, the Supreme Court ruling on the Arizona “show me your papers” provision would have a huge mobilizing effect on Latino voters.  At the Supreme Court’s [...]
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04/27/12 One of our takeaways from yesterday’s Supreme Court hearing on Arizona v. United States is the serious disconnect between the discussion in the court room and how the law would actually play out on the ground. Incredibly, at the start of the federal government’s case, Chief Justice Roberts told Solicitor General Donald Verrilli that he [...]
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04/26/12 Yesterday, at the Supreme Court, the federal government battled it out with Arizona over the latter’s controversial anti-immigrant law, SB 1070.  As you recall, SB 1070 was drafted largely by informal Romney advisor and notoriously anti-immigrant, Kris Kobach — who also holds connections to the shady Tanton network. The bill was also sponsored in the [...]
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04/26/12 “If there’s one thing that we can all agree on, it’s that half of us will not agree on even that,” starts off Stephen Colbert on his popular late-night TV show’s segment, The Word, wittily entitled “United, We Can’t Stand Them.” Rumor has it that immigrants are pyromaniacal, highly-contagious, economy-wrecking terrorists. And now, according to [...]
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04/25/12 Today the Supreme Court heard the case Arizona v. United States, the federal government’s challenge to Arizona’s anti-immigration law, SB 1070.  The specific legal question at issue is whether four provisions of SB 1070 are pre-empted by the U.S. Constitution, which would mean that states such as Arizona cannot intrude on an area of federal [...]
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04/25/12 Here’s the thing about Marco Rubio: he’s the son of Cuban immigrants, represents the state with the fourth-largest immigrant population in America, constantly bills himself and his background as the embodiment of the American Dream…and yet he seems to have much less sympathy for immigrants who have stories much like his. He’s gotten into trouble before for [...]
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04/25/12 The hashtag for today’s Supreme Court hearing is #Justice4AZ.  Here’s what people are tweeting:
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04/25/12 Today, hundreds of opponents of SB 1070 gathered in front of the U.S. Supreme Court to speak out againstArizona’s “show me your papers” anti-immigration law, lift up firsthand accounts about the devastating impact SB 1070 has had on individuals, families and communities in Arizona, and demand federal action on real, positive immigration reform.  At a press conference [...]
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04/24/12 On Wednesday (tomorrow), the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in United States v. Arizona, a debate that is focused on SB 1070’s constitutionality. In case you need a reminder, SB 1070 was an anti-immigrant law that set the precedent for others, such as Alabama’s notorious HB 56 and Georgia’s HB 87. Jeanne Butterfield, Eliseo [...]
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04/24/12 With the Supreme Court set to hear arguments for and against Arizona’s anti-immigration law on Wednesday, April 25th, we turn to another court for its ruling—the court of public opinion.  In advance of tomorrow’s proceedings, America’s Voice Education Fund analyzed how immigration and SB 1070-type laws are play out  among the American people. The results might be [...]
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04/24/12 Currently, there are an estimated 5,000 U.S citizen children lingering in foster care due to the detainment or deportation of their parents. Deportation policy in the US is supposed to focus on “violent offenders and people convicted of crimes; not families, not folks who are just looking to scrape together an income.”  A New York [...]
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04/23/12 A horrifying video of a man being tasered to death by Border Patrol officers is the latest in the series of controversies facing this often out-of-control branch of the Department of Homeland Security.  Watch the video: La Opinion, one of the nation’s largest Spanish language newspapers, editorialized about it over the weekend, and compares it [...]
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04/23/12 This week, all eyes will once again be on SB 1070. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear arguments on the Arizona law and will soon decide whether to strike it down forever, or open the door to Arizona laws across the country. Exactly two years ago today, Governor Jan Brewer signed Arizona’s now-infamous “show [...]
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04/23/12 We’ve been publishing a series of posts from the DREAMers of the Campaign for an American DREAM.  Last month, they set off from San Francisco to begin a 3,000-mile, 8-month+ walk to Washington, DC to call attention to the DREAM Act and the need for immigration reform. Today’s post is from Veronica Gomez, a DREAMer from the San [...]
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04/20/12 Um, what?  Conservatives given a chance to war against women and immigrants—and deciding not to take it? It was last week that we first heard about a bill in Nebraska that extends prenatal care to undocumented women, thereby setting up a great clash between the issues of immigration and abortion.  From Fox News Latino: The [...]
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04/20/12 While the Supreme Court is preparing to hear oral arguments on Arizona’s arch-anti-immigrant law SB 1070 next week, Alabama is taking another look at HB 56, the local anti-immigrant law that was inspired by SB 1070.  House representatives voted 64-34 yesterday to approve a tweak bill to the original HB 56 law, a half-measure that [...]
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04/20/12 Republicans are looking for a way to shore up their historically low standing with Latino voters.  Senator Marco Rubio is reportedly developing a more Republican-friendly version of the DREAM Act in part to do just that. Enter Senator John Cornyn of Texas.  In 2010 he called attempts to pass the DREAM Act a political stunt.  [...]
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04/20/12 Today, Mitt Romney heads to Arizona for multiple campaign events.  Against the backdrop of next week’s U.S. Supreme Court argument in U.S. v Arizona, the Romney campaign yesterday attempted to distance the candidate from his past support of Arizona’s “show me your papers” immigration law. The stakes are high.  Last weekend, at a closed door [...]
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04/20/12 Next Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in United States v. Arizona, a case focused on the constitutionality of Arizona’s SB 1070 “show me your papers” immigration law.  In addition to its implications for the continued spread of costly and Draconian state-based laws, the eventual ruling – likely in June 2012 – has [...]
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04/19/12 On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear the case of Arizona v. United States. It’s the challenge to Arizona’s harsh “show me your papers” anti-immigrant law, SB 1070, brought by the Obama administration. As Jed Lewison writes today at DailyKos, Mitt Romney is a supporter of SB 1070, which he views as a “model” [...]
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04/19/12 As frenzied political junkies begin to chatter about the fight for the Latino vote in November, another fight is coming to Washington much sooner. Next week, the highest court in the land will hear oral arguments on the constitutionality of Arizona’s anti-immigrant law SB 1070. The Court has the potential to, in the name of [...]
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04/19/12 Next week, the Supreme Court will begin hearing oral arguments on Arizona’s arch-anti-immigrant law, SB 1070—an all-important, game-changing clash between the federal supremacy clause, the need for federal immigration reform, and the belief that states can and should pursue efforts to make undocumented immigrants self-deport. Activists, officials, lawyers, and lawmakers all over the nation have [...]
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