06/19/13 Right now, Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) is meeting with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) to talk about immigration reform.  Immediately following the 2012 elections, Speaker Boehner said to ABC News “This [immigration] issue has been around far too long…A comprehensive approach is long overdue, and I’m confident that the president, myself and others can find [...]
Read More »

06/19/13 Opponents of immigration reform are getting ever wackier. On Monday, we wrote about a protest in Kansas that took place over the weekend at Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s house.  The peaceful protest (you can see video here) left pairs of shoes at Kobach’s doorstep, to signify all the individuals and families that he and [...]
Read More »

06/19/13 Since the CBO score applauding the economic merits of immigration reform came out yesterday, Sen. Jeff Sessions has been working hard to try and discredit the score by claiming that its analysis is all wrong. “CBO did not provide enough information to assess the assumptions it made about the educational background of illegal immigrants and [...]
Read More »

06/19/13 The Senate Gang of 8 immigration bill received good news yesterday when the CBO reported that the legislation would save the country $197 billion in its first decade, and an additional $700 billion in the next 10 years after.  Here’s a roundup of some of the commentary today on what the score means: From Ezra [...]
Read More »

06/19/13 Arizona Republic: House’s Boehner Calls Bill Lax on Border Security By Dan Nowicki Des Moines Register: Iowa Poll: 54% of Iowans Favor Creating Path to Citizenship By Jens Manuel Krogstad Washington Post: ICE Director John Morton Stepping Down By Josh Hicks New York Times: Immigration Bill Would Slash Deficit, Budget Office Finds By Ashley Parker [...]
Read More »

06/18/13 The following is a statement from Frank Sharry, Executive Director of America’s Voice, reacting to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) scoring of the Senate’s immigration bill: The CBO score shows that there are now 197 billion reasons for Congress to do the right thing and pass immigration reform this year, and 700 billion more reasons over [...]
Read More »

06/18/13 Congratulations, Jeff Sessions–you got your wish! For weeks now, the junior Senator from Alabama — and leading anti-immigrant voice in the Senate — has been complaining about the upcoming Congressional Budget Office score for the Senate Gang of 8 bill.  The CBO usually scores a bill for 10 years, which Sessions didn’t think would be [...]
Read More »

06/18/13 This afternoon, the House Judiciary Committee is continuing their markup of the SAFE Act (known on twitter as #HATEAct), which is already the worst anti-immigrant bill in recent history.  (View the press conference denouncing it here.) Rep. Steve King (R-IA), however, apparently just can’t help himself: King just attempted to insert a birthright citizenship amendment onto [...]
Read More »

06/18/13 This week, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) has begun to talk tough about how he plans to move immigration through the House—with a majority of the majority, he says, and no violation of the Hastert rule. At a closed-door meeting with conservatives today and a press conference after, Boehner talked trash about the Senate immigration [...]
Read More »

06/18/13 House Members, DREAMers & National Immigration Leaders Denounce the SAFE Act Leaders Call on the House to Get Behind Real Immigration Reform with Citizenship at the Heart Washington, DC – Today, the House Judiciary Committee began marking-up a new immigration bill, HR 2278, introduced by Rep. Trey Gowdy and other Republicans.  The bill, which they [...]
Read More »

06/18/13 National Journal reports that anti-immigrant House members are asking why Republicans should pass legislation that would give citizenship to “11 million undocumented Democrats.”  This fear of citizenship – and future voting behavior – courses through much of the immigration debate and underscores many Republican amendments designed to make the path to citizenship less attainable.  As [...]
Read More »

06/18/13 The House Judiciary Committee is meeting today to markup H.R. 2278, the so-called “SAFE Act,” an extremist anti-immigrant bill which would criminalize all undocumented immigrants.  Below is a collection of responses to the bill: Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL): The Arizona SB1070 law was substantially struck down by the Supreme Court?  No matter, the Republicans want [...]
Read More »

06/18/13 USA Today: House proposal to further criminalize illegal immigration criticized By Alan Gomez National Journal: Sens. Hoeven, Corker Push New Border-Security Amendment By Rebecca Kaplan NBC Latino: Legislation to criminalize undocumented immigrants takes center stage today By Sandra Lilley Houston Chronicle (Editorial): Cornyn: The Great Pretender? Associated Press: House committee takes up tough immigration bill [...]
Read More »

06/18/13 Below are remarks from Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), who delivered a speech on the House floor about today’s markup of the SAFE Act in the House Judiciary Committee: Remarks on Immigration, U.S. Congress, June 18, 2013 Mr. Speaker – Later today, the Judiciary Committee will mark-up the first immigration-reform bill offered by Republicans in the [...]
Read More »

06/17/13 Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) voted twice against the Gang of 8 immigration bill working its way through the Senate last week, and immigration reform advocates have been calling him out on it ever since. “Sen. Mark Kirk, where are you?” asked a Chicago Tribune editorial of his position on immigration reform. Kirk is often hailed as [...]
Read More »

06/17/13 Today, director of ICE John Morton announced that he would be leaving his position at the end of July to take a position at a private company. Morton has held his position since May 2009, and ICE has deported more than a million people during his tenure. Below is a response from the National Day [...]
Read More »

06/17/13 As the second week of debate on the Gang of 8 immigration bill got underway today, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, began his floor speech outlining the week ahead. As he said, “I hope we can make more progress on this vital legislation.” Leahy went on to explain several of the [...]
Read More »

06/17/13 For those in Washington, DC this Friday: take a break from the hustle and bustle of town and come to the premier of Jose Antonio Vargas‘ documentary, a film he’s been working on since early 2011. “Documented” has been chosen as the centerpiece film at this year’s AFI Docs festival in D.C.  The screening is at 8 [...]
Read More »

06/17/13 The following blog is a cross-post from Michael Macleod-Ball, Chief of Staff at the ACLU Washington Legislative Office, writing about the Senate state of play and the immigration bill’s continuing progress on the Senate floor: The full U. S. Senate took up the potentially historic bill to overhaul the country’s immigration system last week. At [...]
Read More »

06/17/13 Kris Kobach may be AWOL from the immigration debate this year, but he hasn’t been forgotten. 300 protestors from Sunflower Community Action and other pro-immigration reform groups gathered outside of Kobach’s Kansas home this weekend, chanting and calling on him to change his stance on deportations.  They also left pairs and pairs of empty shoes [...]
Read More »

06/17/13 “They are only asking for a chance to give back to their home” Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), the champion of the DREAM Act for over a decade, took to the Senate floor today to celebrate the one year anniversary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and the successes of the young people [...]
Read More »

06/17/13 Strike 1: Passing King Amendment to Deport DREAMers; Strike 2: Tomorrow’s Mark Up of a Judiciary Committee Bill to Criminalize Immigrants; Strike 3: If the House Blocks Immigration Reform for the Year  Understandably, most of the recent attention regarding immigration reform has focused on the Democrat-controlled Senate, where it appears that a strong bipartisan majority [...]
Read More »

06/17/13 Because Cornyn’s Proposal is a Poison Pill that Threatens the Heart of the Senate Immigration Reform Bill As we’ve been saying, Senator John Cornyn’s (R-TX) border security amendment is a thinly disguised effort to thwart the path to citizenship – the bill’s popular heart and an essential component of workable immigration reform.  With wide ranging criticisms spanning [...]
Read More »

06/17/13 Wall Street Journal: Taking on Immigration, One Bit at a Time By Janet Hook New York Times: In Senate, an Immigration Bill Savior or Saboteur? By Ashley Parker Bloomberg: Requiring Immigrants to Learn English Sought in Senate Proposal By Kathleen Hunter Fiscal Times: Immigration Bill Splits the GOP, Forcing a Showdown By Eric Pianin and [...]
Read More »

06/15/13 Will Adults in Republican Party Stand Up to Cynical, Mean-Spirited, and Draconian Legislation from House GOP?  Early next week, the House Judiciary Committee is primed to move forward on new and draconian immigration legislation that shows that they have learned nothing since the 2012 election and are intent to duplicate and repeat the policy and [...]
Read More »

06/14/13 It’s a fundamental truth of the immigration debate: the fastest way to get Latinos and immigrants fighting mad is to try to turn 11 million undocumented immigrants into criminals. In 2006, when the House tried to turn being in the U.S. without papers into a crime under the infamous “Sensenbrenner bill,” millions of Latinos and [...]
Read More »

06/14/13 Today, America’s Voice Education Fund alongside other immigration advocates and policy experts held the sixteenth in a series of weekly “Office Hours” press briefings.  Moderated by Frank Sharry, Executive Director at America’s Voice Education Fund, today’s call featured Mercedes Lemp, Executive Director, Language ETC; Evelyn Rivera, South East Regional Organizer, United We Dream; and Kamal [...]
Read More »