07/15/11 Yesterday we wrote a blog post about Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX)'s latest anti-immigration bill, the Hinder the Administration's Legalization Temptation, or HALT, Act. The bill would strip President Obama of the power to set priorities on immigration enforcement, meaning he would be limited in his ability to grant stays of deportation for certain refugees or DREAM students.
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07/15/11 In the latest news regarding undocumented immigrant students, the California Senate has moved forward with a state version of the DREAM Act. Yesterday, state senators approved AB-130, by Assemblyman Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles).
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07/15/11 As it turns out, undocumented workers aren't really big fans of being targeted while they're doing their job, and farmers aren't so keen on having their workers picked on either. As a result of anti-immigrant legislators passing legislation that scares off undocumented workers, farmers are suffering, and a multi-billion dollar industry is at a significant loss.
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07/15/11 According to the ACLU, Rep. Lamar Smith's deceptively named "Keep Our Communities Safe Act" bill "would in fact lead to the detention of thousands more immigrants for years without first having a hearing before a judge."
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07/15/11 Last night on the Colbert Report, my personal hero, Jose Antonio Vargas, the Pulitzer Prize winner who recently came out -- as Colbert put it -- a "border gay," told America that he's an undocumented immigrant, not an illegal one.
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07/14/11 Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) is at it again, introducing new legislation that reveals his own political agenda and hypocrisy while promising to make the already broken immigration system even worse. The Hinder the Administration's Legalization Temptation Act, or HALT Act, would strip the Obama Administration's ability to set immigration enforcement priorities.
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07/14/11 Breaking news: a Republican has said something crazy. It must be Wednesday. Today, we're bringing you news from Alabama, where sitting U.S. Congressman Morris "Mo" Brooks (R-AL) is under fire for comments made to an Alabama television station, WHNT: "As your congressman on the House floor, I will do anything short of shooting [immigrants]."
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07/13/11 Yesterday, we wrote about a New America Media article noting that the slow flow of immigrants was negatively impacting California farms. But farmers in California could see things take a turn for the worse if House Republicans have their way and pass E-Verify.
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07/13/11 The battle to stop Alberto Yanez's deportation is far from over, but at least it has been delayed for another year. Alberto Yanez -- father of three American citizens, brother of two American citizens, and a passionate DREAMer -- saw major breakthrough when he was granted a one year stay of deportation through January of next year.
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07/13/11 Once thought to have been the GOP's solution to its Latino problem, Marco Rubio's move to the right on immigration (from his previous stance of saying as little as possible on the issue) is a dubious strategy, to say the least, to curry favor with Latino voters. This is especially true as immigration remains the most important issue to the majority of them (particularly to those from his own state), ahead of jobs and the economy
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07/12/11 Three months and dozens of cities into his "Change Takes Courage" campaign tour, Congressman Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) is finding that Hispanics all over the nation agree about one thing: President Obama must do something about immigration reform.
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07/12/11 Last week, New America Media asked an important question about an industry directly impacted by immigration: Slow Flow of Immigrants Already Impacting California Farms? Some say yes. Others, not yet. But if Lamar Smith's E-Verify bill passes nationally, there will be a worker shortage -- and crops rotting in the fields.
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07/12/11 It's a rare piece of legislation these days that unites state and local business organizations, the labor movement, and a range of faith denominations across the country together in outrage. But that's exactly what's happening in response to the mandatory E-Verify legislation being championed by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) and Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA).
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07/11/11 Arizona State Senate President Russell Pearce (R-Mesa) rose to national prominence championing SB 1070, the state's infamous anti-immigration law that spawned a series of copycat bills nationwide after it was signed into law last April.
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07/08/11 In an 11 am press conference in Montgomery, Alabama today, the American Civil Liberties Union, along with the Southern Poverty Law Center, the National Immigration Law Center, the Asian American Justice Center and the Asian Law Caucus have filed a class action lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of HB 56, Alabama's anti-immigrant law that Alabama Gov. Robert J. Bentley signed into law.
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07/08/11 Maricopa County's Sheriff Joe Arpaio is, of course, the Arizona enforcer infamous for wide-ranging immigration sweeps involving machine guns and tanks and forcing pregnant women to give birth while handcuffed to bed.
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07/07/11 Andy Mathe is fighting the fight of his life. He could literally be deported at any moment. Andy's father is a Rwandan refugee. Four years ago in Rwanda, Andy's family started receiving death threats. Someone even tried to kidnap Andy's younger sister. Soon after, Andy's father brought the family to America to find safety, but now immigration officials in Georgia want to send Andy back.
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07/07/11 Anyone who wondered why America's Voice gave Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) the "hypocrite of the year" award in January only had to watch his performance at last week's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the DREAM Act. His "performance" was filled with misinformation, cynicism and demagoguery.
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07/07/11 Rep. Lamar Smith's battle with Markos Moulitsas (of Daily Kos) continues. Rep. Lamar Smith has very, very thin skin. He does not like to be criticized, nor does he allow any critique of his flawed E-Verify legislation go unrebutted. The problem for Smith is that he's got no facts to back up his position, practically handing off yet another win to Markos.
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07/07/11 Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA) sits on both the House Judiciary and Small Business Committees. She's a strong opponent of Rep. Lamar Smith's E-Verify bill. From her unique vantage point, Chu told her colleagues, "Mandatory E-Verify Legislation will Cripple Small Businesses."
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07/06/11 Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) continues to insist that his forced E-Verify legislation would be a good thing for the U.S. economy and U.S. job seekers. However, Smith's fellow conservatives and leading libertarians disagree.
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07/06/11 If you're an immigration news fiend like most of us are over at America's Voice, then you might have wondered at some point why DHS won't let States that are concerned with the Secure Communities program opt out of participating. Or, like Rep. Zoe Lofgren, wonder why DHS said that States could opt out when they can't.
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07/05/11 Alberto Yanez is a hard-working student, a committed young father, and an ambitious DREAMer. He came to the United States from Mexico in 1988 when he was just a year old. Raised in California, Yanez moved to Washington with his family after his junior year in high school. He has been living there ever since.
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07/05/11 CBS News went to Georgia to get the story of how that state's new immigration law, with its mandatory E-Verify provision, is impacting the state's agricultural industry. CBS confirms what we've been hearing. Farmers and growing are experiencing an immediate -- and costly -- impact.
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07/01/11 It's apt that this coming Monday is Independence Day, because it's been inspiring to see so many students stand up to speak about why they love America and why they are Americans. Watch our short clip from the DREAMers below, and happy Fourth of July!
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07/01/11 Rep. Lamar Smith claims E-Verify "is not an immigration bill, it's a jobs bill." But, Smith's definition of a "jobs bill" is one that kills 770,000 jobs, forces millions into an administrative quagmire, destroys America's agriculture industry and imposes new taxes and red tape on small business.
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07/01/11 The American agriculture industry "fears a disaster" if Rep. Lamar Smith's E-Verify legislation becomes law. The current situation in Georgia, which passed a state E-Verify and now has crops rotting on the vine, gives credence to those fears. Smith's bill poses grave dangers for farmworkers.
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