06/17/13 Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) voted twice against the Gang of 8 immigration bill working its way through the Senate last week, and immigration reform advocates have been calling him out on it ever since. “Sen. Mark Kirk, where are you?” asked a Chicago Tribune editorial of his position on immigration reform. Kirk is often hailed as [...]
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06/17/13 Today, director of ICE John Morton announced that he would be leaving his position at the end of July to take a position at a private company. Morton has held his position since May 2009, and ICE has deported more than a million people during his tenure. Below is a response from the National Day [...]
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06/17/13 As the second week of debate on the Gang of 8 immigration bill got underway today, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, began his floor speech outlining the week ahead. As he said, “I hope we can make more progress on this vital legislation.” Leahy went on to explain several of the [...]
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06/17/13 The following blog is a cross-post from Michael Macleod-Ball, Chief of Staff at the ACLU Washington Legislative Office, writing about the Senate state of play and the immigration bill’s continuing progress on the Senate floor: The full U. S. Senate took up the potentially historic bill to overhaul the country’s immigration system last week. At [...]
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06/17/13 Kris Kobach may be AWOL from the immigration debate this year, but he hasn’t been forgotten. 300 protestors from Sunflower Community Action and other pro-immigration reform groups gathered outside of Kobach’s Kansas home this weekend, chanting and calling on him to change his stance on deportations.  They also left pairs and pairs of empty shoes [...]
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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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06/17/13 Wall Street Journal: Taking on Immigration, One Bit at a Time By Janet Hook New York Times: In Senate, an Immigration Bill Savior or Saboteur? By Ashley Parker Bloomberg: Requiring Immigrants to Learn English Sought in Senate Proposal By Kathleen Hunter Fiscal Times: Immigration Bill Splits the GOP, Forcing a Showdown By Eric Pianin and [...]
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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 It’s a fundamental truth of the immigration debate: the fastest way to get Latinos and immigrants fighting mad is to try to turn 11 million undocumented immigrants into criminals. In 2006, when the House tried to turn being in the U.S. without papers into a crime under the infamous “Sensenbrenner bill,” millions of Latinos 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 By Yoli Navas: “Qué Pasa” is our weekly roundup of  news, opinion, and links from Spanish-Language online news publications: The Senate began debating the bipartisan immigration reform bill, as well as Obama’s push for Congress to pass the bill, and the amendments that are being proposed. Below are a few highlights: Noticiero Univision: Enmiendas Venenosas Buscan Descarrilar [...]
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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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06/14/13 It’s the one-year anniversary of the announcement of the deferred action for DREAMers (DACA) program this weekend—and it’s also Father’s Day.  But with hundreds of thousands of immigrants being deported every year and more than 5,000 children living in foster care due to the deportation of their parents, too many families will be living in [...]
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