02/05/13
If you can’t watch today’s hearing on immigration in the House Judiciary Committee, follow along on twitter. Tweets by @americasvoice
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Blog Archives
Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX)
Tagged as: Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX)
02/04/13
Leadership on the House Judiciary Committee has recently changed hands—Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) is now the chair of Judiciary, while Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) chairs the Immigration Subcommittee. We’ve written posts on both of them recently about how their records aren’t particularly distinguishable from their notoriously anti-immigrant colleagues, Reps. Steve King (R-IA) and Lamar Smith [...]
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12/04/12
Cross-posted at Huffington Post and Daily Kos. After the drubbing Republicans took from Latino voters in the 2012 elections, some of the party’s leaders began to talk openly about the stark choice they face: appeal to a diversifying America, or risk extinction as a national party. This isn’t just a political choice, it’s a policy choice too. Already we’re [...]
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11/30/12
In the first vote on an immigration bill since this month’s election, the Republican-controlled House rehashed an old policy and passed a version of a bill that already failed earlier this year, 245-139. Twenty-seven Democrats joined Republicans in supporting the legislation. The STEM Jobs Act, sponsored by anti-immigrant Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), would increase visas [...]
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11/28/12
Earlier this week, we told the GOP that the same cast of characters + the same mistakes on immigration = the same ending when it comes to the Latino vote. That is, it was an encouraging sign when Republicans–after losing this year’s presidential contest by more than a 3-1 margin among Latino voters–began talking about [...]
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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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09/21/12
TO: Ruben Navarrette FROM: Frank Sharry RE: Thanks for the shout out Hey Ruben, I read your nationally-syndicated column today. Thanks for the shout out to America’s Voice and me. As is always the case, your column is a must-read. I don’t always agree with you, but especially during non-election years it’s my humble opinion [...]
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08/17/12
The beginning of deferred action made for quite an historic day yesterday, with tens of thousands of DREAMers lining up from Chicago to El Paso to Los Angeles waiting to receive assistance on their applications. Yet in the midst of a nationwide celebration and day of victory, there remained the anti-immigrant extremists from the peanut [...]
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08/07/12
The August 15 start date for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to begin accepting DREAMer requests for deferred action is fast approaching. While many supporters and advocates are putting all hands on deck in order to help DREAMers fill out their paperwork and avoid scammers, others are still insisting that allowing young immigrants to continue contributing to [...]
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08/01/12
Tomorrow’s House Constitution Subcommittee hearing on Rep. Steve King (R-IA)’s English Language Unity Act—a bill that would mandate “English-only” government documents and services—is hardly the first indication that the House GOP is taking its cues on immigration from the anti-immigrant movement’s playbook, but it might be the most brazen. Since returning to power in 2011, [...]
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08/01/12
With his sensational spin on a new Congressional Research Service (CRS) memo, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) is proving once again that he believes “immigrant” to be synonymous with “criminal”—and showing why the Republican Party is having such a hard time courting Latino voters and others with immigrant roots. Smith is the leading lawmaker behind the [...]
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08/01/12
Yesterday the Immigration Policy Center (IPC) released a treasure trove of data on DREAM Act-eligible youth, including where they come from and where in the US they tend to live. The report, entitled “Who and Where the DREAMers Are: A Demographic Profile of Immigrants Who Might Benefit from the Obama Administration’s Deferred Action Initiative,” is [...]
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07/10/12
US News and World Report offers two members of Congress with opposing views on President Obama’s bold move to provide relief to DREAMers. On one side is Rep. Luis Gutierrez, who supports the President’s action: If anyone still had any doubts about the legal ground on which the president stands with his recent announcement, he [...]
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06/29/12
Post-health care decision analysis from Francis Wilkinson at Bloomberg notes that the ruling might provide a short respite for Romney from his ongoing immigration debacle: The Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the Democrats’ Affordable Care Act has saved the Romney campaign from its recent message muddle. Romney ran into turbulence as soon as the U.S. Department of [...]
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06/22/12
Via Judd Legum at Think Progress, we learn what many of us thought, but hadn’t quite heard from anyone inside the Romney campaign — until now: Ray Walser, a co-chair of Mitt Romney’s campaign for issues pertaining to Latin America, finally spilled the beans: …Mr Walser, told The Daily Telegraph: “My anticipation is that he would probably rescind this [...]
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06/20/12
For the past eighteen months, Speaker John Boehner has entrusted immigration policy to three of the most anti-immigrant voices in the GOP caucus: Lamar Smith, Elton Gallegly and Steve King. That trio has held one immigrant bashing hearing after another. Of course, all three of them — and Boehner — voted against the DREAM Act [...]
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06/19/12
Yesterday, we got word that Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), the leading anti-immigrant voice in the House of Representatives, had scheduled a press conference on immigration. That wasn’t a surprise. In the wake of President Obama’s bold action to protect DREAMers, we expected the usual backlash from Smith. After all, his partner in immigrant-bashing, Rep. Steve [...]
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06/08/12
Yesterday, in a near party-line vote, the House of Representatives approved an amendment by Rep. Steve King (R-IA) to the Homeland Security appropriations bill that would prevent the Department of Homeland Security from prioritizing immigration enforcement. Republicans voted to oppose sensible prioritization in favor of unfettered deportation – voted against a focus on dangerous criminals and for the indiscriminate deportation of [...]
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05/30/12
Cross-Posted at The Huffington Post: Having alienated Latino voters in the primary with hard right immigration positions and dehumanizing anti-immigrant rhetoric, what will GOP nominee Mitt Romney and his surrogates do in the general election to attract the 40% of Latino votes experts say he needs to win the presidency? Many have argued that Romney [...]
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04/18/12
You might remember E-Verify. It’s House Judiciary Committee Lamar Smith’s pet project to singlehandedly boost the American economy by expanding regulation and costing hundreds of thousands of legal American workers their jobs. The bill stalled after it passed the House Judiciary Committee last fall, and it’s no more politically viable or better an idea now [...]
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04/02/12
As we've been writing about all week, House Immigration Subcommittee Republicans like Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) hit a new low on Wednesday with their "Holiday on ICE" detention hearing, in which they spent some 90 minutes insisting that our nation shouldn't bother providing immigrant detainees with adequate health care.
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03/28/12
As the House Immigration Subcommittee hearing, "Holiday on ICE," gets underway, a press call today highlighted flagrant and repeated violations inside our nation's immigrant detention centers and questioned why House Republicans are making light of an issue so seriously in need of reform.
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03/28/12
As the House Immigration Subcommittee hearing, "Holiday on ICE," gets underway, a press call today highlighted flagrant and repeated violations inside our nation's immigrant detention centers and questioned why House Republicans are making light of an issue so seriously in need of reform.
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03/28/12
Today at 1:30, the U.S. House Immigration Subcommittee will renew its attack on immigrants with a hearing to "examine" the Obama Administration's updated Performance-Based National Detention Standards (PBNDS).
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03/28/12
Today at 1:30, the U.S. House Immigration Subcommittee will renew its attack on immigrants with a hearing to "examine" the Obama Administration's updated Performance-Based National Detention Standards (PBNDS).
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03/28/12
Today at 1:30, the U.S. House Immigration Subcommittee will renew its attack on immigrants with a hearing to "examine" the Obama Administration's updated Performance-Based National Detention Standards (PBNDS).
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02/14/12
Last week, Frank (Sharry) wrote a blog post at Huffington Post about the Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX).
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