01/03/13 With the passage of SB 1070 in 2010, Arizona became the first state in the nation to sanction the kind of ugly anti-immigrant politics that states like Alabama and Georgia now also practice.  Despite warnings about its racial profiling provisions and the potential for negative impact on the state, the anti-immigrant zealots in Arizona were [...]
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12/21/12 Earlier this month, Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO), along with a large and prominent group of pro-immigration reform leaders in Colorado, launched the Colorado Compact, a bipartisan set of principles to guide a conversation on immigration reform going forward.  The Compact boasts some of the broadest possible support from across the political spectrum, and has been [...]
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12/18/12 More breaking news from Congress today about new committee and subcommittee chairs: House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) has announced his pick for the new House Immigration Subcommittee Chair—Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC). Here’s what we know: Gowdy supported Lamar Smith’s STEM Jobs Act—twice—voting yes on a bill that would increase STEM visas for [...]
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12/17/12 The retirement of Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-CA) is finally nigh, bringing good cheer this season to immigration advocates everywhere.  Gallegly, a member of Congress since the 80s, has long been a nativist crusader and one of the anti-immigrant “Three Amigos” on the House Immigration Subcommittee. His hometown paper, the Ventura County Star, wrote profile piece [...]
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12/13/12 This is a headline we like to see: Arizona Sheriff Arpaio Loses Bid to Dismiss U.S. Bias Lawsuit The loss against Sheriff Joe means the lawsuit against him will proceed: Joe Arpaio, the sheriff of Arizona’s Maricopa County, lost a bid to dismiss a lawsuit by the U.S. Justice Department that accuses him and his officers [...]
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12/12/12 In the wake of Arizona’s SB 1070, Georgia’s legislature got caught up in the anti-immigrant frenzy and passed a harsh “show me your papers” law. This week, that provision took effect: Georgia state and local police may start enforcing one of the most controversial parts of the state’s immigration law for the first time now [...]
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12/04/12 First, a California Republican group refused to support Assemblyman Tim Donnelly (R-CA)’s exploratory bid to become governor.  Now, Kansas lawmakers have voted against elevating state Rep. Virgil “Let’s Shoot Immigrants from Helicopters” Peck to the position of assistant majority leader.  Republicans nationwide and at the state level are realizing that they must do better with [...]
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12/03/12 Former California Governor Pete Wilson created the path to Latino power in his state when he aggressively pursued Proposition 187 back in 1984. He dug a deep hole for the GOP — and they’ve only continued to dig it deeper since then. This year, Wilson was a co-chair of Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign. When it [...]
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11/30/12 Hasn’t Rep. Steve King (R-IA) gotten the memo yet? While Republicans of all stripes are busy agreeing that the GOP must start doing better with the Latino vote and immigration reform, anti-immigrant Rep. King is—as Sen. Lindsey Graham would say—digging the hole deeper.  King went on talk radio this week to claim that GOP efforts [...]
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11/27/12 At Crooks and Liars yesterday, our friend David Neiwert eviscerated columnist Ruben Navarratte’s latest column for trying to rewrite the history and politics of immigration. Dave, who follows the issue very closely, is having none of it. You have to read the whole thing to fully appreciate Dave’s work, but here’s how it begins: Ruben Navarrette, [...]
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11/27/12 Sheriff Joe Arpaio is one of the worst anti-immigrant extremists our movement has ever had to contend with — and you and other activists on our side have officially voted him Turkey of the Year! With his history of racial profiling and corruption, we all probably have worse names for Sheriff Joe Arpaio –but in [...]
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11/21/12 This Thanksgiving, there’s a lot to be thankful for – family, food, and the growing movement for citizenship that we are all a part of. But while Thanksgiving means giving thanks, it also means turkey. That’s why we’re holding a contest to elect one lucky anti-immigrant extremist as our “Turkey of the Year!” We’ll announce [...]
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11/14/12 Great news out of Long Island today, where activists are celebrating a civil rights victory for immigrants.  From a Make the Road New York press release: This morning, Long Island’s Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone signed an Executive Order that requires all County agencies to provide translation and interpretation, ensuring equal access to services for [...]
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11/12/12 Are House Republicans really about to install another anti-immigrant extremist as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee–now, when they clearly need to reconsider their standing on immigration and the Latino vote? For the past two years, the House Republicans’ immigration policy has been set by anti-immigrant hardliners like chair of the House Judiciary Committee Lamar Smith, [...]
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11/02/12 It looks like Tom Horne, the Arizona Attorney General who walks in lockstep with state Governor Jan Brewer about all things related to SB 1070 and immigration, is in a bit of trouble.  From the Associated Press today: FBI agents allege Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne left the scene of a minor automobile accident because he was [...]
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11/02/12 National Journal’s Ron Brownstein writes about the changing demographics in the United States — and how that impacts elections. He notes that Latinos, the fastest growing voting bloc, are a key to the future. And a number of Republican strategists are deeply worried about their party’s chances in that diverse future, unless something changes on [...]
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10/26/12 Rep. Steve King (R-IA) again promised that he would sue President Obama over his deferred action program (DACA) yesterday during his final debate against challenger Christie Vilsack (D). “I intend to follow through on that,” King responded to a question about whether he still had plans to file the lawsuit.  “I ran into a few [...]
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10/26/12 Arizona Governor Jan Brewer this week decided to inject herself into the super-close Senate race between Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and former Surgeon General Richard Carmona (D), using her political action committee (JanPAC) to spend $100,000 printing and supporting mailers supporting Flake over Carmona. As Capitol Media Services reported yesterday: PAC spokesman Paul Senseman said his boss believes she [...]
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10/23/12 UPDATED: Unbelievable! The Maricopa County Elections Department has just admitted that they once again gave Latino voters the wrong date for next month’s election. This time, it’s bookmarks distributed by the elections department that incorrectly lists the general election date in Spanish as November 8, while the correct date (November 6) is listed in English on the [...]
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10/19/12 Maricopa County, Arizona residents are used to seeing tent cities, chain gangs of prisoners, and pink underwear.  This fall, as Sheriff Joe Arpaio faces a much closer reelection for Sheriff than usual against Paul Penzone, residents are also seeing impassioned protests in unusual forms, involving chickens and monarchs. Yesterday, the anti-Arpaio group Citizens for a [...]
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10/17/12 Trouble is brewing in Detroit again. This week, ICE agents approached two immigrant families while they were dropping off their children at Cesar Chavez Academy in Southwest Detroit.  One father, Hector Orozco, was dropping off his son when he was arrested, and remains in detention. Another family was stopped outside the Manuel Reyes Vistas Nuevas [...]
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10/12/12 Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach is the self-styled leader of the dwindling anti-immigrant movement.  After the Arizona and Alabama laws he crafted were found mostly unconstitutional (except for their “show me your papers” provisions), Kobach launched a new vendetta. This time, he’s going after DREAMers, in the form of a lawsuit seeking to end [...]
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10/10/12 Anti-immigrant extremist Rep. Steve King (R-IA) hasn’t debated challengers since he was first elected to Congress in 2002.  But even he is caving this year, agreeing to a series of debates with Democratic challenger and former Iowa First Lady Christie Vilsack. Not so for Arizona’s Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the rogue lawman running Maricopa County.  In [...]
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09/27/12 In June, Representative Steve King (R-IA)–one of the most anti-immigrant members of Congress–sent out a fundraising appeal to his list of supporters, declaring his plans to sue the President of the United States.  The extremist Rep. King disagreed with the President’s plan to offer immigrant youth temporary relief from deportation, and believed a lawsuit was [...]
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09/24/12 Earlier today we shared with you Stephen Colbert‘s segment on Republicans and the Latino vote.  Turns out Ann Coulter was talking about the same topic this weekend during a roundtable discussion with host George Stephanopoulos, Univision anchor Jorge Ramos, former Clinton labor secretary Robert Reich and former Obama domestic policy adviser Melody Barnes.  But, as expected, Coulter was [...]
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09/20/12 Cross-Posted at Jack and Jill Politics: Does Mitt Romney even hear himself when he talks? By now we all know about the new video Mother Jones released of Mitt Romney writing  off 47% of Americans by calling us “dependents” who would vote for Obama no matter what.  The punditocracy has been chattering ever since as [...]
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09/17/12 UPDATE: CNN updated its article with a statement from the Romney campaign: Asked for clarification, a spokesman for the Romney campaign said Romney and Kobach have, in fact, met before at campaign events – but not in formal policy meetings. The aide said that in Monday’s radio interview, Romney was referring to policy meetings, which [...]
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