04/24/13 With the release of the Senate immigration bill last week and multiple hearings since then, it’s been a busy time in the world of immigration reform.  Here are some of the stories we wanted to make sure you haven’t missed. Nearly the entire Colorado Senate today passed a bipartisan resolution urging Congress to pass immigration [...]
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04/09/13 Today the Progressive States Network, leading national group of pro-immigrant state legislators, announced that state lawmakers from 16 different states have either introduced or plan to introduce resolutions in support of comprehensive immigration reform. As State Senator Angela Giron (Colorado), Chair of the National Immigration Working Group said: The fact that so many state lawmakers are now [...]
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03/08/13 The Colorado ASSET legislation – a state tuition bill that will allow young immigrants living in Colorado to pay in-state tuition for college – has just passed a final vote in the Colorado House today with a 40-21 vote margin, its last step before arriving on the desk of Gov. John Hickenlooper, who has vowed [...]
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01/15/13 From Laura Misjak at the Lansing State Journal today: This is the year for immigration reform and Lansing-area activists are joining forces with others throughout the nation to demand paths to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and ways to reunite families torn apart by deportation. Taking a stand in freezing temperatures on the front steps of [...]
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01/10/13 Mississippi, well-aware of how HB 56 in Alabama turned out, is wary of proceeding with its own anti-immigrant bills.  Texas is backing away from last year’s push to crack down on immigrants.  Even Georgia is seeking to make changes to its current legislation. Kansas, however, it seems is another matter.  The home state of Kris [...]
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11/29/12 More than a year after Alabama began implementing state anti-immigrant law HB 56—which was supposed to be a jobs bill–Alabama now has the worst economy in the American Southeast.  The state has endured a year of civil rights groups and supporters comparing the state’s present to its famously ugly racial past, and federal courts no [...]
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10/25/12 This time last year, Alabama had just begun implementing its worst-in-the-nation anti-immigrant law, HB 56, causing chaos in the state and forcing neighborhoods full of immigrants to flee.  At the time, state senator and HB 56 sponsor Scott Beason rationalized the law as “a jobs bill,” one that would drive immigrants out of the state [...]
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10/11/12 Earlier this week we wrote about a new University of Maryland Baltimore County study finding that the passage of Maryland’s Question 4 (a vote in favor of that state’s DREAM Act) will generate $66 million in economic benefits for the state: Maryland’s Dream Act, if approved by voters on Nov. 6, would lure more illegal [...]
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10/10/12 Earlier this week we wrote about Maryland’s Question 4, a voter initiative that must pass in order to secure a special college tuition rate for Maryland’s undocumented immigrant youth. Some Florida students, however, have been fighting against state laws that force them to pay out-of-state tuition—not because they are undocumented, but because their parents are.  [...]
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10/09/12 Four weeks from today, Maryland voters will have the chance to defend the DREAM Act by voting FOR Question 4.  So far, the polling looks good for our side. Supporters of Question 4, led by students, took to the streets over the weekend with a march by young people that concluded with a rally at the [...]
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10/01/12 California Governor Jerry Brown had the chance this week to make California the anti-Arizona, a place where immigrants could count on and work with local police to fight crime. Instead, he chose to keep California on a path where tens of thousands of immigrants are deported each year for minor offenses like driving without a [...]
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09/27/12 Time is running out in California for the TRUST Act.  California’s Governor, Jerry Brown, only has until THIS weekend to sign the bill, and we’re asking everyone to call (916) 445-2841 to ask Gov. Brown to sign the bill TODAY. Lawrence Downes in the New York Times today explains the significance of the TRUST Act: [...]
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09/25/12 Remember that crazy anti-immigrant law out of Alabama – HB 56? The one that was so bad that we referred to it as the monster of all immigration laws, which also resulted in a mass-exodus of Alabama’s Hispanic population? Here’s a reminder from an article in Bloomberg today: The Alabama law’s intent was to attack [...]
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09/19/12 As we reported, yesterday a U.S. District judge lifted an injunction against the “show me your papers” provision of Arizona’s SB 1070 anti-immigrant law, allowing this draconian provision to go into effect.  Many agree that the implementation of this provision will involve rampant racial profiling of Latinos in Arizona. No doubt, additional legal challenges will be brought [...]
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09/18/12 It’s an ugly day for justice in Arizona: A judge in Arizona ruled Tuesday that police can immediately start enforcing the most contentious section of the state’s immigration law, marking the first time officers can carry out the so-called “show me your papers” provision. The decision by U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton is the latest [...]
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09/11/12 Yesterday, the state of Alabama filed a motion asking the full 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to rehear arguments about the state’s worst-in-the-nation anti-immigration law.  The Alabama law, HB 56, made international news for targeting schoolchildren in an overzealous attempt to make their undocumented parents self-deport.  Alabama’s appeal comes after a three judge panel from [...]
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09/06/12 Yesterday featured some stark reminders of why politics and elections matter. On stage at last night’s Democratic National Convention, DREAM Act advocate Benita Veliz spoke to the assembled delegates and television audience and shared her compelling personal story: “I graduated as a valedictorian of my high school class at the age of 16, and I [...]
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08/29/12 Russell Pearce, once of the champions of the Arizona anti-immigrant law, went down to defeat yesterday in his Republican State Senate primary…for the 2nd time! He lost by nearly 12 points to businessman Bob Worsley. He also lost to Jerry Lewis in a historic recall election last February. This primary was supposed to be Pearce’s comeback bid. Pearce crafted [...]
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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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08/20/12 Some news coming out of the 11th circuit court today regarding the Alabama and Georgia anti-immigrant laws – According to Ben Winograd at Immigration Impact: In a series of decisions issued Monday afternoon, a federal appeals court in Atlanta struck down major portions of controversial immigration laws passed by Alabama and Georgia—including a provision requiring [...]
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08/16/12 Yesterday, when Mitt Romney visited Birmingham, Alabama for a fundraising event at the city’s exclusive restaurant — “The Club” — he was met outside by a number of protestors from the Immigrant Youth Leadership Initiative of Alabama. The group chanted “education, not deportation” and held up signs that read “no papers, no fear.” Last year, [...]
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08/08/12 Juana Reyes was arrested last month for selling tamales without a permit in a Wal-Mart parking lot. Now she’s facing deportation back to Mexico, even though she’s been in the country for 20 years and she’s the sole provider for her two US citizen kids. Sounds like something that would happen in Sheriff Joe’s Arizona, [...]
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07/26/12 President Obama’s June announcement (that DREAM Act-eligible youth would be spared from deportation and granted work permits) was widely applauded as a move that would finally grant relief to young immigrants and allow them to move toward legal status.  But a shady, cynical cadre of fraudulent lawyers and notarios has already sprung up, prepared to [...]
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07/19/12 Cross-Posted at Latino Vote Matters and Latino Decisions: In polling data released today, Latino Decisions reports that Latino registered voters oppose the Supreme Court decision to uphold the controversial provision in Arizona’s SB1070 law that would require state and local police to check immigration status if they suspect a person they have stopped is an [...]
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07/18/12 Several opponents of Arizona’s SB 1070, including the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Immigration Law Center and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, went to Court today to stop implementation of the “show me your papers” provision of that law. The groups are “seeking a court order that would prevent authorities from enforcing a rule that requires [...]
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07/18/12 Today, Latino Decisions released a poll commissioned by America’s Voice and Center for American Progress, revealing how the SCOTUS ruling on SB 1070 has increased Obama’s standing with Latino voters. So, Jan Brewer  and her obsessive push for that onerous and discriminatory anti-immigrant law has actually helped Obama increase his lead. It’s 70% – 22% [...]
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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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