06/18/13 The following is a statement from Frank Sharry, Executive Director of America’s Voice, reacting to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) scoring of the Senate’s immigration bill: The CBO score shows that there are now 197 billion reasons for Congress to do the right thing and pass immigration reform this year, and 700 billion more reasons over [...]
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06/18/13 National Journal reports that anti-immigrant House members are asking why Republicans should pass legislation that would give citizenship to “11 million undocumented Democrats.”  This fear of citizenship – and future voting behavior – courses through much of the immigration debate and underscores many Republican amendments designed to make the path to citizenship less attainable.  As [...]
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06/17/13 “They are only asking for a chance to give back to their home” Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), the champion of the DREAM Act for over a decade, took to the Senate floor today to celebrate the one year anniversary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and the successes of the young people [...]
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06/17/13 Strike 1: Passing King Amendment to Deport DREAMers; Strike 2: Tomorrow’s Mark Up of a Judiciary Committee Bill to Criminalize Immigrants; Strike 3: If the House Blocks Immigration Reform for the Year  Understandably, most of the recent attention regarding immigration reform has focused on the Democrat-controlled Senate, where it appears that a strong bipartisan majority [...]
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06/17/13 Because Cornyn’s Proposal is a Poison Pill that Threatens the Heart of the Senate Immigration Reform Bill As we’ve been saying, Senator John Cornyn’s (R-TX) border security amendment is a thinly disguised effort to thwart the path to citizenship – the bill’s popular heart and an essential component of workable immigration reform.  With wide ranging criticisms spanning [...]
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06/15/13 Will Adults in Republican Party Stand Up to Cynical, Mean-Spirited, and Draconian Legislation from House GOP?  Early next week, the House Judiciary Committee is primed to move forward on new and draconian immigration legislation that shows that they have learned nothing since the 2012 election and are intent to duplicate and repeat the policy and [...]
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06/14/13 Today, America’s Voice Education Fund alongside other immigration advocates and policy experts held the sixteenth in a series of weekly “Office Hours” press briefings.  Moderated by Frank Sharry, Executive Director at America’s Voice Education Fund, today’s call featured Mercedes Lemp, Executive Director, Language ETC; Evelyn Rivera, South East Regional Organizer, United We Dream; and Kamal [...]
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06/14/13 One year ago this weekend, President Obama announced the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program for DREAMers.  This bold executive action, spurred by the actions and advocacy of the DREAMers themselves, reignited Latino voter enthusiasm for President Obama, crystallized the immigration distinctions between President Obama and Mitt Romney and played a decisive role in the 2012 [...]
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06/13/13 Cornyn Amendment Attacks Path to Citizenship, Rubio Moves Erode Trust in Him, Sessions Stalling Tactics Bring Senate Floor Process to a Crawl The Senate immigration reform debate began this week, ushered in by a resounding 84-15 vote on the Motion to Proceed.  Buoyed by polls that show broad bipartisan support for reform with a path [...]
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06/12/13 This week the U.S. Senate began debating immigration reform on the Senate Floor. On a press call/webinar today, Latino Decisions and America’s Voice released the second installment of the latest in a series of tracking polls – all of which underscore the political imperative of passing immigration reform. Sylvia Manzano, Senior Analyst, Latino Decisions said, [...]
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06/12/13 Even Polls Senator Grassley Cites Show that Public Consistently Backs Immigration Reform with Path to Citizenship On the Senate floor today, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) once again misrepresented public opinion on immigration reform – so once again, we’re compelled to correct the record.  Grassley highlighted selective results from three polls as “proof” that the American [...]
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06/12/13 The critics of the Gang of Eight immigration reform bill incessantly – and mistakenly – claim that the proposed legislation doesn’t have enough teeth, doesn’t guarantee border security and won’t work to stop a new wave of unauthorized immigration.  Well, today, they were schooled by Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY). He took to the floor and [...]
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06/11/13 This afternoon, the Senate voted by a 82-15 margin to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to the immigration bill, S. 744.  Compared to the 2007 immigration debate, when the similar procedural vote only advanced by a 64-35 margin, today’s vote is a promising sign.  It is expected that another bipartisan majority will vote [...]
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06/11/13 The day after Senator Kelly Ayotte’s (R-NH) endorsement of the immigration reform bill gave the effort a momentum boost, the Huffington Post reports that Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) is encouraging Republican Senators to hold back support for the bill until it takes on “a more conservative bent.” Elise Foley and Sam Stein of the Huffington [...]
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06/06/13 In anticipation of the debate next week on the Senate floor, Latino Decisions and America’s Voice released the latest in a series of polls that underscore the political imperative of passing immigration reform. This latest poll shows that Democrats and Republicans have a lot to gain and a lot to lose depending on how they [...]
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06/06/13 Today, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives passed an amendment by Rep. Steve King (R-IA) that attacks DREAMers, young people who have grown up in America and are American in all but paperwork.  The amendment to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) appropriations bill would restrict DHS from using any discretion in immigration enforcement, [...]
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06/05/13 There he goes again.  Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) is up to his old tricks on immigration.  POLITICO reports that Senator Cornyn will introduce a “sweeping amendment to the immigration bill when it goes to the floor next week, seeking to replace an entire section devoted to border security and tweak the national security and criminal justice titles.”  The [...]
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06/04/13 Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) continues to call for even more enforcement in the Senate bipartisan immigration bill, a bill he helped craft and signed off on earlier this year.  As the Washington Times reports, “Sen. Marco Rubio, one of the key authors of the Senate’s immigration bill, signaled Monday that he might abandon the bill [...]
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06/03/13 Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) and  other Republican Senators are making it clear that they need to see even more enforcement and a tougher path to citizenship in this compromise legislation.  This is raising concerns that the GOP will upset the careful balance in the Gang of Eight bill by demanding “border security first” and threatening the path to [...]
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05/31/13 This week, longtime conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly issued a call for the Republican Party to abandon immigration reform and Hispanic outreach in favor of a strategy focused on white voters.  Talking Points Memo reports: “Phyllis Schlafly of the ‘pro-family’ group Eagle Forum called the GOP’s need to reach out to Hispanic voters a ‘great myth’ during a conservative radio program [...]
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05/29/13 After several productive weeks for immigration reform in the Senate Judiciary Committee and ahead of a busy legislative push in both chambers in the coming weeks and months, this week’s congressional Memorial Day recess offers a chance for pause and reflection about immigration’s legislative state of play. Here are five observations about the prospects and [...]
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05/22/13 The following is a press release from the Alliance for Citizenship: Leaders from the Alliance for Citizenship, a national campaign working with hundreds of groups across the country to pass comprehensive immigration reform with a direct and inclusive path to citizenship, previewed the next steps to advance S. 744: Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration [...]
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05/17/13 Today, America’s Voice Education Fund and fellow immigration experts held the twelfth in a series of weekly press briefings, or Immigration Reform “Office Hours.”  Each week, a different and diverse group of speakers shares the latest information on the players, politics, legislation and other developments in the debate in Washington and around the nation. Moderated [...]
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05/17/13 The news that a bipartisan working group in the House of Representatives has reached an agreement in principle on immigration legislation, alongside the continued steady legislative progress on the Senate’s immigration bill, underscores our optimism about immigration reform’s prospects in 2013. According to Frank Sharry, Executive Director of America’s Voice: This is a major breakthrough.  [...]
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05/15/13 Yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee cast a near-unanimous vote against an amendment from Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) to restrict future legal immigration.  It underscores the growing irrelevance and isolation of the anti-immigrant movement in this year’s debate. According to Frank Sharry, Executive Director of America’s Voice: The anti-immigrant movement thought that their efforts to define and distort the Senate immigration bill combined [...]
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05/14/13 NEW RESOURCE: Review of key amendments filed in Senate Judiciary Committee from America’s Voice This morning, the Senate Judiciary Committee cast a near-unanimous vote against an amendment from Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) to unduly restrict future legal immigration into the country over the next decade.  Sessions was the only Senator to vote for his amendment, [...]
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05/13/13 Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) is up to his old tricks on immigration.  Today, he issued a new video highlighting the depths of his hypocrisy when it comes to getting serious about reforming our broken system.  Below is a statement from Frank Sharry, Executive Director of America’s Voice Education Fund, responding to this new video: This [...]
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