09/27/10 Via Huffington Post's Amanda Terkel, Florida's Independent Senate candidate Charlie Crist says immigration reform is key to keeping social security solvent: "Studies show that 11-14 million people are in the country as non-citizens, and if we are willing to have a thoughtful, reasonable pathway to citizenship -- earning citizenship -- then those 11-14 million people can become productive, participating members of the American economy, paying the payroll taxes, helping Social Security going forward, and making America stronger financially..."
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09/24/10 You've gotta watch this. Via Huffington Post, updates from Stephen Colbert's appearance at a Subcommittee Hearing on Immigration today.
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09/15/10 Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairwoman Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) will meet with President Barack Obama on Thursday to discuss next week's Senate action on the DREAM Act and the path ahead for comprehensive immigration reform.
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09/15/10 Today’s top story in the Spanish-language press is Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-NV) announcement yesterday that he plans to introduce the DREAM Act, which would legalize undocumented youth, as an amendment to the defense appropriations bill to be debated in the Senate next week. Senate to vote on DREAM. The press notes that Senator [...]
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09/10/10 So, just where do Americans stand on the red-hot issue of illegal immigration? Is it true that they want the government to just "build the dang fence" and be done with it? Are they so fed up with those who have violated immigration laws that they are clamoring for mass deportation? Or do they want immigration reform that combines enforcement with legal status for those rooted here? Do they like the Arizona "papers, please" immigration law and want other states to act, or do they want a comprehensive, federal solution?
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09/03/10 A new study about the effects of immigration on U.S. employment supports the long-standing arguments of immigration advocates: Rather than displacing American workers, immigrant labor actually makes our economy stronger. Kevin Drum has the details at Mother Jones.
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09/01/10 A new study by the San Francisco Fed, highlighted by the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg,  and Reuters, provides state-level proof that immigrants, well, make us richer. According to the author of the report: [T]otal immigration to the United States from 1990 to 2007 was associated with a 6.6% to 9.9% increase in real income per [...]
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08/13/10 This isn't inaction, it's bad action. President Obama has continued many of the worst enforcement policies of President Bush. Both the Obama Administration and congressional Democrats have fallen prey to the border-first mantra of the GOP. In an election year where swing voters are looking for solutions and Latino voters are looking for respect, all parties have some 'splainin to do on immigration.
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08/05/10 Today, leading Senate Democrats Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Claire McCaskill (D-MO) unveiled a plan to spend an additional $600 million on border security. This follows months of Republican complaints that the President is "doing next to nothing to secure the border," despite the cold hard fact that spending on border security is higher than ever and that crime rates in Arizona are down. Republicans have been pegged with blatantly false claims such as Phoenix being the "number two kidnapping capital of the world" (false) or that there is a frightening surge of beheadings in the state (false).
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07/26/10 As anti-immigrant ringleaders whip themselves into a frenzy over illegal immigration, and continue a strategy that is both bad for the Republican Party and bad for the country, some Republicans are suggesting another way.
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07/20/10 Yesterday, the President of the AFL-CIO Richard Trumka and Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis sat down to talk about a key workers' rights issue: comprehensive immigration reform. The duo made a clear and compelling case for reform that legalizes undocumented immigrants, and explained why comprehensive reform is in the interest of all workers in America – immigrant and native-born.
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07/14/10 Conservative religious leaders from across the country and across the religious spectrum have united in a cohesive effort to push for a just and compassionate solution to our broken immigration system. A handful of these leaders went to Congress today to make their case for comprehensive immigration reform at a hearing dubbed, "The Ethical Imperative for Reform of Our Immigration System."
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07/08/10 The federal lawsuit against Arizona over SB 1070, and the suit's political and legal ramifications, remains the top story in the Spanish-language press. But as the legal battle heats up, pressure remains on the federal government to find a comprehensive solution to the problems of immigration policy.
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07/06/10 He stressed that the speech was an important moment to reassert federal leadership on immigration, and he encouraged reform supporters to sign the petition to the White House and Congress to pass the DREAM Act -- as a down payment on full, comprehensive reform. The New York Times ran a compelling editorial on immigration last week, following the President's speech, entitled, "Mr. Obama's Immigration Promise:"
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07/01/10 Today, President Obama will deliver remarks on the need to fix our broken immigration system through comprehensive immigration reform at the American Univeristy School of International Service. The speech will be streamed live at WhiteHouse.gov at 10:45AM EDT (www.whitehouse.gov/live). If you miss it, at 1:00 PM EST you can still join Cecilia Muñoz, one of the President's closest advisors on this issue, who will be taking questions from Americans all over the country in a unique online roundtable. Or join Administration officials for a conference call at 4pm EST to discuss the President's speech.
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06/25/10 Today, immigration reform saw a welcome two steps forward. First, a press conference today marked over 100 co-sponsors for the CIR ASAP bill, introduced last fall by Representative Luis Gutierrez (D-IL). At the press conference, members of Congress reaffirmed and intensified their commitment to passing immigration reform.
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06/17/10 Today, the Spanish-Language press reports on Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) priorities for 2010-2014. At the same time, ICE is looking to improve their immigration detention centers; Farmworker Justice and Oxfam release a report that shows farmworkers are still being exploited.
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06/15/10 Today, the Spanish-language press gives significant coverage to the U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting in Oklahoma City, where mayors from around the country condemned SB 1070 and called for action on immigration reform; The Supreme Court ruling in favor of immigrants charged with minor drug posession also received wide coverage.
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06/14/10 The Spanish-Language press covers the Mexico-U.S. Interparliamentary meeting in Campeche, Mexico in where Legislators talk about immigration reform. Guatemalans are denied temporary protected status (TPS) while Harvard student who was detained over the weekend, faces deportation back to Mexico.
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06/08/10 The Spanish-language press reports on a Gallup poll showing that President Barack Obama is growing less popular with Hispanic voters. A study on immigration and the economy, a press conference on immigration and crime, and primary elections in California also grab headlines.
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06/07/10 The Spanish-language press covers last Saturday's anti-immigrant protest in Arizona in support of SB 1070 and a statement from the Bishops of the Americas asking for comprehensive immigration reform.
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06/02/10 With national polls showing majority support for Arizona's harsh immigration law, you probably think these voters are hard liners determined to rid the country of immigrants and deny a path to legal status for all of the undocumented immigrants in the U.S., right? Wrong.
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05/21/10 Hundreds of people occupied a building yesterday in downtown Seattle, Washington, protesting Obama's inaction on immigration reform. The building, which was located downtown, houses some relevant audiences: the immigration court, Customs and Border Patrol, as well as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office. The action, which was organized by the Washington Immigration Reform Coalition, risked the arrest of 43 members of the group. Joined by Councilman Larry Gossett, the group blocked access to the building's elevators, as well as certain points of street traffic.
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05/19/10 A second-grader stole the show today, even as U.S. President Barack Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderon held a press conference in the Rose Garden at the White House. They spoke about the need for immigration reform and about concerns over Arizona's harsh new law. Nothing particularly surprising.
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05/17/10 In the wake of Univision's televised town-hall debate on Friday and the release of new polling data on U.S. Hispanics' take on immigration issues, the Spanish-language press looks toward a visit to the Capitol from Mexican President Felipe Calderón to discuss Arizona SB 1070 and the fate of undocumented immigrants.
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05/14/10 Conservative evangelicals made a big splash in the immigration debate this week, as some of the movement's foremost leaders joined some continued champions to call for immediate action on bipartisan immigration reform. Evangelical leaders including Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention, Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel and the Liberty University School of Law and Bill Hybels of Willow Creek Community Church (a national figure in the Evangelical movement) signed a full-page ad in Thursday's edition of Roll Call titled "An Evangelical Call for Bipartisan Immigration Reform."
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05/07/10 The numbers were gaudy last June, and they've only gotten gaudier since. There is near-universal support, and it cuts across all lines. In fact, independents (85/12) are more likely to support comprehensive immigration reform than even Democrats (79/16). Republicans are just a hair behind (77/14). Support is strong across all age, race, and geographic groups.
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