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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02/02/12 While Kris Kobach his wreaking havoc on the immigrant families and the economies of other states, the Agriculture Secretary in Kansas wants to create a program to allow undocumented immigrants to work.
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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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01/30/12 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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11/30/11 The AP reports that the agriculture industry is worried about enforcement measures like E-Verify, a flawed tool which would evaluate whether or not an employee is legal to work in the United States.
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11/22/11 According to some supporters of Alabama's worst-in-the-nation immigration law – figures such as State Senator Scott Beason, Congressman Mo Brooks (R-AL), U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL), anti-immigrant leader Mark Krikorian, and immigration law architect and current Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R) – the state's "papers, please" anti-immigration law is working exactly as they intended.
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11/15/11 Last night, on NBC's "Rock Center with Brian Williams," reporter Kate Snow did a segment on what Williams called the "huge controversy" in Alabama caused by the passage of HB 56. Snow's report showed the dire impacts of HB 56 on Alabama's Latino families and the state's farmers.
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11/04/11 A scathing editorial in today's Washington Post blasts Alabama's new anti-immigrant law - and the failure of Congress to find a path to citizenship for the undocumented immigrants living in the U.S.
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10/27/11 The Alabama immigration law took a beating last night from no less an authority than Stephen Colbert, the fake news show host who famously spent a day laboring on a farm in upstate New York last year, then testified before Congress about his experience.
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10/27/11 The Wall Street Journal makes an excellent point about immigration today. Yesterday, before Janet Napolitano was to face a number of bullying Republicans at an Oversight Hearing held by the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) wrote an op-ed in Politico calling Obama's record deportation numbers "a trick."
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10/25/11 With all that's been happening with the new immigration law in Alabama, it's been hard to remember that there are, in fact, other balls still in the air re: immigration. Take, for example, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX)'s mandatory E-Verify bill, passed through the House Judiciary Committee last month and lingering in the House ever since.
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10/18/11 Recently, the 11th circuit court blocked two parts of the nation's harshest anti-immigrant law, only making HB-56 the teeniest bit less severe. To recap, the court basically said that newly-enrolled students in Alabama don't need to show proof of lawful residency and immigrants apparently don't need to carry around proof of lawful residency.
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10/05/11 Last week, we wrote about our Spanish language radio station ad campaign against E-Verify, sponsored by America's Voice Education fund and Service Employees International Union. This week, we want to show off our new print ad, run by La Opinión in districts represented by E-Verify advocates Reps. Elton Gallegly and Dan Lungren (R-CA).
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09/28/11 While House Republican leaders try to figure out the timing for when they should drop a floor vote on a flawed mandatory E-Verify bill, America's Voice Education Fund and Service Employees International Union launched a five-figure Spanish-language media campaign to educate constituents about the legislation, which we often refer to as the "GOP's Jobs-killing Plan."
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09/22/11 Yesterday, the House Judiciary Committee passed Rep. Lamar Smith's mandatory E-Verify bill on a party-line vote, and you can bet that the GOP leadership is sweating about this. If Smith's E-Verify plan is successful, it would devastate the agriculture industry, where undocumented immigrants make up 75% of the workforce.
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09/22/11 Yesterday, The House Judiciary Committee approved Rep. Lamar Smith's E-Verify bill on a party-line vote after considering a series of amendments. Rep. Lamar Smith has consistently maintained that his E-Verify bill is about protecting American workers, even though it's clearly not.
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09/21/11 The House Judiciary Committee just voted, 22 - 13, to pass Rep. Lamar Smith's E-Verify bill, H.R. 2885. It was a party line vote. All the Democrats voted no while the GOP members voted with Smith. The next step in the House is up to Republican leadership. And, Smith's bill is generating serious controversy among traditional GOP allies.
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09/20/11 Despite increasing opposition from within his own party, as well as concerns from labor unions, agriculture, and Latino groups, Lamar Smith is pushing onward with his destructive, anti-immigrant "jobs agenda."
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09/19/11 Despite publicly expressing confidence over the legislation's prospects, leading anti-immigrant lawmaker Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) had a difficult week promoting his mandatory E-Verify bill.
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09/16/11 In "honor" of this nonsense, and in honor of it being Friday, we at America's Voice have pulled together a few fun clips that remind us of the echo chamber around these GOP legislators. We all know the economy is a problem, but these representatives would rather cast blame and point fingers rather than get down and propose real solutions to that which needs solving.
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09/15/11 In the House Judiciary Committee this morning, Rep. Lamar Smith and his Republican chums delivered opening statements in support of mandatory E-Verify at a mark-up for that virulently anti-worker/anti-immigrant pieces of legislation, which is sponsored by Rep. Smith. Even though E-Verify would impact all American workers (even U.S. born citizens), Rep. Lamar Smith continues to spin it as the "GOP's Jobs Plan."
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09/15/11 E-Verify, the top priority of Rep. Lamar Smith and the House Republican Caucus, would cause the loss of 800,000 American jobs and burden small businesses. That's bad enough. But, there's another problem: E-Verify doesn�t work. The system fails over half the time.
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09/14/11 Republican contender Michele Bachmann (R-MN) apparently longs for the good old days of the 1920s -- and their rampant racial and ethnic paranoia. At the presidential debate held Monday, she said:The immigration system in the United States worked very, very well up until the mid-1960s...
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09/14/11 Despite all the problems with E-Verify, Rep. Lamar Smith is charging forward with his mandatory bill -- and adding a cheap guest worker plan to the mix in a blatant attempt to buy off the industry. Instead of putting American workers first, Smith's plan promotes a race to the bottom for the industry and jeopardizes the jobs of hundreds of thousands of Americans working in and around agriculture today.
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09/14/11 Today, community leaders, small business owners, and workers all around the country are declaring a National Day of Action Against E-Verify. They're speaking out against this terrible bill that would stand between workers and their jobs in this economy.
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09/13/11 Yesterday, Rep. Mike Honda (CA-15), Chairman of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC)'s immigration caucus, wrote a "Dear Colleague" letter to his fellow house members about the dangers of e-verify. He highlights that this mandate would cost Americans their jobs (770,000 of them) and crush small businesses.
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