02/27/12 Last night, the Academy gave a meaningful nod to Demián Bichir for his role as an undocumented immigrant in Chris Weitz's movie, "A Better Life."
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02/23/12 In anticipation of the Republican primary in Arizona, the Center for American Progress (CAP) today has released a new report, "Staying Put but Still in the Shadows," an analysis which finds that harsh anti-immigrant laws do not cause undocumented immigrants to self-deport, only to hunker down deeper into the shadows.
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02/17/12 Last September, a federal court judge allowed a sweeping immigration crackdown law to take effect. That legislation, which was signed into law by Governor Bentley in June of 2011, quickly progressed into a unrelenting nightmare for immigrant families living in the state. Many in America had no idea what was happening, and many still don't.
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02/16/12 Yesterday, we wrote about the premiere of Chris Weitz's "Is this Alabama?" film series, a collection of four short videos documenting life under Alabama's HB 56 immigration law.
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02/15/12 The Center for American Progress (CAP) today launched a new film series from Oscar-nominated director Chris Weitz ("Twilight: New Moon," "A Better Life") entitled "Is This Alabama?"—a project intended to probe into and expose the extremities of Alabama's harsh new anti-immigrant law, HB 56.
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02/15/12 Today, Hollywood director Chris Weitz (who made one of the Twilight movies, About A Boy, and A Better Life will be releasing a series of short videos calling for the repeal of Alabama’s anti-immigrant law, H.B. 56.   The videos are being premiered at the Center for American Progress (CAP), where they’ll be launching the videos [...]
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02/15/12 A spirited Valentine's Day rally to repeal Alabama's anti-immigrant law, HB 56, turned into a commentary on race and immigrant relations yesterday when hundreds of Alabamians showed up at the State House to protest, only to be largely turned away and prohibited from speaking to their legislators inside.
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02/09/12 As HB 56, the Alabama immigration law, undergoes more scrutiny, the backlash against its architect, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, continues to grow. People are fed up with HB 56, and they know Kris Kobach is the one to blame.
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02/08/12 Does anyone (besides Mitt Romney) listen to the chair of the House Judiciary Committee anymore?
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02/08/12 In Alabama this Valentine's Day? Help us take a stand against HB 56, Alabama's immigration law. The state legislature returns to session this week and we need to show them that there is NO love for HB 56 in Alabama.
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02/07/12 As the Alabama state legislature begins its new legislative session today, the costs and consequences of the state's "papers, please" anti-immigration law is the hottest political topic in the state.
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02/06/12 Activists fighting for a repeal of Alabama's immigration law, HB 56, announced today that they have called on the state's auto manufacturers to stand with them against Alabama's "backward immigration policy." (We live-tweeted the press conference here.)
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02/01/12 Despite his claim that HB 56 "is a jobs bill" that would free up hundreds of thousands of jobs for Americans once immigrants self-deported, there's been no evidence that the immigration law has contributed to the state's lowered unemployment rate, and no job growth in immigrant-heavy sectors like agriculture and construction.
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01/31/12 More on Alabama and the HB 56 anti-immigrant law today: This American Life at NPR radio has a great broadcast entitled "Reap What You Sow" – a comprehensive story about life in Alabama under HB 56.
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01/30/12 It's been a little while since we've mentioned Alabama's HB 56, the harshest state immigration law in the land. With the state legislature coming back into session February 7, however, will come renewed attempts to repeal this terrible law. And boy, are there reasons to push repeal.
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01/23/12 "This is a jobs bill," they said. "This is a jobs-creation bill for Americans," they said. Such were the arguments that Alabama Senator Scott Beason (R) and Rep. Micky Hammon (R) made last year before passing their notoriously anti-immigrant state law, HB 56.
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01/17/12 Yesterday evening, Scott Douglas, executive director of Greater Birmingham Ministries, made an appearance on the Colbert Report to discuss Alabama's monster immigration law, HB 56. On the day Americans were celebrating the memory of our nation's greatest civil rights leader, Douglas invoked the great leader himself.
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01/10/12 On Saturday, the Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice (ACIJ) hosted a community blood drive "to celebrate the contributions of immigrants to our communities with caring and dignity."
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01/05/12 Legislation in Tennessee which would amend the state's anti-bullying law to exempt bullying for political reasons just as long as the victim's person or property aren't damaged. It is being denounced for aiming to give a green light to the harassment of gay kids in school, which it is.
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12/22/11 On June 9, 2011, Governor of Alabama Robert Bentley, with the support of the Alabama legislature, signed into law the now-infamous HB 56 immigration bill. Composed of social, political, and economic barbs, the law has completely changed life as we've known it for all undocumented immigrants throughout the state.
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12/21/11 It's almost Christmastime…unless you're in Alabama. Across the Yellowhammer State, government leaders are still too busy defending the HB 56 extremist immigration law to really start thinking about "the reason for the season."
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12/21/11 The largest anti-HB 56 protest to come to Montgomery, Alabama happened this past Saturday, when 2500 protestors came to the state capitol to rally for the repeal of the nation's harshest immigration law.
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12/12/11 Firedoglake's David Dayen reports on the news that Alabama's Governor, Robert Bentley, is making noises about changing the state's harsh anti-immigrant law, which Bentley signed just a couple months ago.
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12/07/11 The struggle to overturn HB 56, Alabama's harshest-in-the-land immigration law gained a powerful new ally day before yesterday when state attorney general Luther Strange, a Republican, came out in favor of removing certain portions of the law.
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12/06/11 On Saturday, December 3, William Anderson, Ingrid Chapman, and Victor Palafox – some of my favorite organizers in Alabama – teamed up with Occupy Birmingham and organized a protest of the Etowah County detention center in Gadsden, Alabama.
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12/01/11 The "One Family, One Alabama" campaign launch against HB 56 may have happened more than a week ago, but we wanted to go back today to re-recognize the fantastic Congressional delegation that came to Alabama on their own dime to investigate the excesses and extremes of the nation's harshest immigration law.
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12/01/11 A civil rights abuse hotline in Alabama -- set up by the Southern Poverty Law Center, National Immigration Law Center (NILC), American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), MALDEF, Latino Justice, Asian Law Caucus -- has fielded over 1,000 calls in just two days since the implementation of HB 56.
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