05/07/13 Federal legislation to improve the nation’s immigration system is taking a step forward this week, when the Senate Gang of 8 immigration bill goes into markup, but advocates today are reminding President Obama of the high cost of strict immigration enforcement and what he can do to alleviate the problem. A new study from Lake [...]
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01/30/13 As part of their continuing series of “Bibles, Badges, and Business” events, the Forging a New Consensus project of the National Immigration Forum today held a press conference with Bill Bratton, the former Police Commissioner to both the Los Angeles and New York Police Departments.  In the midst of continuing Republican insistence that the border [...]
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12/28/12 Late last Friday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced that they had deported another record number of immigrants in the last fiscal year, but that they were enacting reforms that could lead to fewer unnecessary deportations in the future.  As a New York Times Christmas editorial noted, the policy change “if it works — should [...]
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12/11/12 After being vetoed by Governor Jerry Brown in California’s last legislative session, the reintroduced TRUST Act is gaining new life after state attorney general Kamala Harris recently announced that local and state police agencies are no longer obligated to follow the federal program known as Secure Communities.  As conservative columnist Ruben Navarrette wrote this week: Now [...]
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09/20/12 We live-tweeted the interview with Mitt Romney yesterday — check out tweets on that from us and others. We’ll also be live-tweeting the President’s interview today, at 2:10 PM est, so be sure to follow us @americasvoice and tune in. Univisión’s Jorge Ramos and Maria Elena Salinas grilled Mitt Romney on immigration and other topics [...]
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08/27/12 On Friday, the California State Assembly voted to pass the Trust Act in a 48-26 vote. Briefly, the Trust Act is the opposite of anti-immigrant legislation that is currently plaguing the country, and is a clear alternative to the Secure Communities enforcement program (which costs taxpayers in the state upto $65 million/year, according to a [...]
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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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07/13/12 The drumbeat of criticism about the Obama Administration’s so-called “Secure Communities” program continues, as more cities and states push back against its dragnet approach and insist on local control over police priorities.  As we’ve noted before, the ramifications of S-Comm are often eerily similar to the ramifications of Arizona’s SB 1070.  It allows police wide [...]
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07/05/12 Major progress in the California State Senate this afternoon. We got the good news via twitter from National Day Labor Organizing Network’s (NDLON) Chris Newman: TRUSTACTpassed out of the California Senate — Chris Newman (@newman_chris) July 5, 2012 This bill is basically the antithesis of Arizona’s SB 1070. It’s designed to ensure that the federal “Secure Communities” [...]
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06/26/12 With a 5-3 majority vote, yesterday, the Supreme Court sent a strong signal to the nation that Arizona’s anti-immigrant law is NOT a model for our country.  The ruling was a warning to other states not to follow in Arizona’s footsteps. While the Justices ruled that most provisions of the law were unconstitutional, they let [...]
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06/22/12 At America’s Voice Education Fund, we have been strong critics of Secure Communities, the Obama Administration’s signature immigration enforcement program. We’ve noted that it’s difficult to distinguish the difference between Arizona’s draconian SB 1070 and the Obama administration’s tactics under Secure Communities. That’s how bad it is. The Secure Communities program is now active in 97 % [...]
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06/07/12 The New York Times’ immigration-beat reporter, Julia Preston, wrote an important article today which confirms what we’ve known to be true: the Obama administration’s prosecutorial discretion program is not working: After seven months of an ambitious review by the Obama administration of all deportations before the nation’s immigration courts, very few of them have been halted, disappointing [...]
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05/11/12 The Obama administration’s Secure Communities program is making headlines again — and that’s never good. Secure Communities has played a key role in the Obama administration’s record-breaking number of deportations. Last year, PBS produced a documentary, Lost in Detention, that examined the controversial program. It’s must see for anyone concerned with immigrant rights. The website for  last year’s [...]
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04/30/12 Last week, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released its long-awaited response to last year’s report from the Secure Communities Task Force. Secure Communities, the Obama Administration’s signature immigration enforcement program, has been fiercely criticized by law enforcement experts, state governors and legislatures, community leaders and members of Congress as a deportation dragnet that has systematically [...]
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04/12/12 La Opinión has a withering editorial today about Secure Communities (a.k.a. S-Comm). It’s a brutal takedown of a failed program: Because of its inability to act in a consistent manner, the Secure Communities program has set an example of incompetence in the federal bureaucracy. Through confusion and a lack of transparency, this program has provided false [...]
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03/22/12 Jaime is a fourteen-year resident of Manitowoc, Wisconsin who is the sole provider for his wife and four children, who has been detained by ICE for nearly a month and who could be deported at any time.
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03/19/12 It's not often that you get to hear in English what Spanish language journalists are writing about, but since immigration is a core issue for many Latino voters, you might have guessed – correctly – that it's also an issue highlighted every day in Spanish language media.
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03/05/12 In a time enforcement programs like Secure Communities are splitting apart families, and anti-immigrant legislation -- like HB 56 and SB 1070 -- are assisting in the GOP strategy of "self-deportation", Baltimore City's Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is heeding fair warnings and going down a different path.
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02/28/12 The Obama Administration's announcement that it would phase out one component of its troubled 287(g) immigration enforcement program has been hailed by some as a breakthrough.
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02/17/12 A new report released today by the Commission to Study the Impact of Immigrants in Maryland details the many ways in which immigrants of all stripes lift up Maryland's economy, and recommends steps the state should take to preserve a healthy relationship with all of its residents.
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02/08/12 As the story of sexual abuse at an elementary school in Los Angeles continues to shock the nation, Spanish-language media is reporting another tragic development. Parents of some Miramonte Elementary School children are afraid to go to informational meetings or talk to the police because they worry that contact with the authorities could lead to deportation.
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12/01/11 Yesterday, the House Judiciary Committee held yet another hearing on immigration. Rep. Steve King (R-IA), the leading anti-immigrant voice in the GOP, exhibited egregious behavior during his questioning of former Sacramento Police Chief Art Venegas, a naturalized U.S. citizen.
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12/01/11 Over the past several months, the controversy around DHS' Secure Communities deportation program has grown exponentially as advocates for immigrants and victims of crime, state governors and law enforcement professionals, and even a DHS-appointed task force arrived at a serious conclusion...
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09/16/11 The DHS Task Force on Homeland Security issued its report this week, showing a deeply flawed program. Arturo Venegas resigned from the Task Force, noting, "I believe that Secure Communities is a deeply flawed program and that, in its current form, it is undermining public safety."
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08/30/11 We've heard a lot of talk about the new immigration deportation policy. Soon, we're going to see what it means for undocumented immigrants who are in deportation proceedings. Over the weekend, the Omaha World-Herald published the story of Luis Cervantes. He's a candidate for the relief under the new policy, thanks to Secure Communities.
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08/26/11 The Secure Communities Task Force hearing in Arlington, Virginia last night was not my first protest, but it was my first exposure to what we call "antis"—people from the anti-immigrant crowd. Some were reasonable, and some were not. Some were people I felt I could have a conversation with, and some were so unbelievable in their comments and beliefs that I thought they must be joking.
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08/25/11 After seeing walkouts in Los Angeles and arrests in Chicago, DHS' Secure Communities Task Force came to Arlington, Virginia last night for the last in a series of four hearings designed to gather public input on the deportation program.
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