Tag Archives: comprehensive immigration reform

Lawmakers to Meet with Obama on Immigration Today

  By Maegan La Mala | November 16, 2010 - 1:13 pm |
2 Comments

According to various news sources and organizations, later this afternoon U.S. President Barack Obama will be meeting with some lawmakers regarding immigration reform. Those who will allegedly be at the meeting include Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Rep. Nydia Velasquez (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.). What kind of immigration reform will be pushed is still up in the air.

Some politicians like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Representative Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL), and Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) have recently expressed their support and desires to bring the DREAM Act for a vote.

However Senator Menendez has stated that he sees DREAM as a fall back position. From Politico :

“I would not like to start there,” Menendez said. “I am a strong supporter of the DREAM Act. If that is all that can be achieved, then I certainly support the opportunity.”

I hope that Menendez’s plan, if he has one, doesn’t resemble NY Senator “Biometric Chuck” Schumer’s plans as they were presented last year.

This could just be another one of those meetings for show where nothing comes out except more statements in support of immigration reform while enforcement is amped up in the United States. But that’s just the cynical side of me writing. I really hope that this meeting yields something positive including steeping away from enforcement first language and policies. What’s a little different this time around is some Republicans stepping up in favor of the DREAM Act, which was lacking the last time it was presented for a vote.

A ver and we’ll keep you posted.

Via / Politico & America’s Voice

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Democratic Promises, Insecure Lies

  By Maegan La Mala | October 6, 2010 - 11:15 am |
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Let’s get this out of the way.

Yes, the Republicans as a party have shown nothing but contempt for Latinos, especially immigrant Latinos, LGBT Latinos, poor Latinos and all the intersections and iterations of the aforementioned.

Is that enough for Latinos to run to the polls and vote Democrat in less than a month? All signs point to no. Polls abound pointing that the mythical Latino voter supports the Democratic party in theory but aren’t convinced enough to keep the Dems in office.

And why would that be?

It’s a little too easy to merely point out the fact that the Obama administration has failed to cumplir it’s promesa to the Latino community on comprehensive immigration reform. To rely on that as the reason to not vote/not vote Dem, makes the Latino electorate look irresponsible and passes blame onto the voter. Rather, perhaps the media who is sounding alarm bells about the lack of Latino loyalty and will should look at what the Democrats have done against immigrant communities.

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Ivan Nikolov Released from Jail but Still Faces Deportation

  By Maegan La Mala | August 24, 2010 - 8:00 am |
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VivirLatino has been actively supporting the DREAM Act students and have been publicizing many of their stories here. Recently, we asked for your support for Ivan Nikolov, who was transported to the local jail in Dearborn, Michigan last Friday. Dearborn is often the last stop for many undocumented immigrants before being deported. It was the last stop for Ivan’s mother, who was deported two weeks ago. It was feared that he too was going to be deported immediately. Instead, yesterday, Ivan was released.

Ivan’s struggle is not over. He is currently under electronic monitoring and still has a deportation order pending. Ivan’s struggle is just example of countless struggles, not just of students and young people, but millions of undocumented living in fear not just because there is no comprehensive immigration reform, no DREAM Act, but because the federal government has swung to the side of detaining and deporting first…all else later, if ever.

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Senate Border Security Bill Passes and Obama Signs On

  By Maegan La Mala | August 12, 2010 - 2:38 pm |
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The Democratic led Senate interrupted their summer recess in order to interrupt the lives of countless undocumented immigrants, those suspected of being undocumented immigrants, and those living on either side of the U.S. Mexico frontera.

The Senate approved a $600-million border security bill Thursday morning, sending President Obama his request for 1,500 more troops and immigration officials to beef up security along the border with Mexico…The bill passed without dissent

The National Guard troops that will be deployed to the border have received their orders.And President Obama happily put more boots on the ground and boots on the backs of immigrant communities by signing the bill into law.

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The Triple D Immigration Reform Plan Expands

  By Maegan La Mala | August 11, 2010 - 9:41 am |
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Detain, Deport, and Disappear seems to be the official policy of the Obama administration and the Department of Homeland Security when it comes to immigration. It doesn’t need to be spoken or called that officially. All the community needs to do is look at the recent actions coming out of D.C. and reverberating throughout the country.

Just yesterday I wrote about some of the stats regarding the number of deported under Obama’s expansion of the Secure Communities program. Unfortunately, things have gone from bad to worse, with Secure Communities being expanded, specifically in southern border states, and with the U.S. House of Representatives agreeing to pump $600 million for security along the U.S Mexican border. What’s in the House Bill?

The bill includes $176 million for 1,000 new border patrol agents to form a strike force to be deployed at critical areas, $89 million for another 500 customs and immigration personnel, and $32 million to deploy unmanned aerial vehicles or drones.

It also provides $196 million for the Justice Department to bolster its forces of U.S. marshals, and FBI, DEA and ATF agents along the border.

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Secure Communities Deported Almost 50,000 People

  By Maegan La Mala | August 10, 2010 - 8:11 am |
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VivirLatino has often written about the enforcement first immigration policy that the Obama administration has chosen to take instead of passing comprehensive immigration reform and the DREAM Act. One of the programs that Department of Homeland Security has expanded on and is planning to spread throughout the country is Secure Communities, a program that has local jails sharing with ICE the fingerprints of anyone suspected of being undocumented so that ICE can take further action.

This morning we have some of the first stats on the impact that the fingerprint sharing program has had and who are the immigrants getting caught up in this unholy alliance between the criminal (in)justice system and the civil immigration system.

– Records show that about 47,000 people have been removed or deported from the U.S. after the Homeland Security Department sifted through 3 million sets of fingerprints taken from bookings at local jails.

About one-quarter of those kicked out of the country did not have criminal records, according to government data obtained by immigration advocacy groups that have filed a lawsuit.

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Leaked DHS Memo on Administrative CIR a Right Wing Attack or a Way to Save Face?

  By Maegan La Mala | July 30, 2010 - 6:00 am |
16 Comments

With the right-wing blogosphere crying “Oh Noes Amnesty”!”, late last night a memo was leaked from the Department of Homeland Security revealing that the White House is at the very least considering “Administrative Alternatives to Comprehensive Immigration Reform”.

I hate giving the NRO traffic (full disclosure, I went to high school with the online editor there), the 11 page document looks at ways outside of the legislative process to provide relief for some of the millions of undocumented in the U.S.

From the memo:

This memorandum offers administrative relief options to promote family unity, foster economic growth, achieve significant process improvements, and reduce the threat of removal for certain individuals present in the United States without authorization…

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LGBT Orgs and Catholic Bishops Reiterate Support for Immigration Reform

  By Maegan La Mala | July 16, 2010 - 11:32 am |
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A coalition led by U.S. LGBT organizations and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) issued separate (of course) statements in favor of comprehensive immigration reform.

Yesterday, a joint statement was released praising efforts by lawmakers to get Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) language as part of any comprehensive immigration reform bill.

Today’s united front in support of UAFA – with key lawmakers from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC); Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC); Congressional Progressive Caucus and Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus – could not be more urgent for the families who are facing separation, or already living in exile, because of our country’s discriminatory immigration laws. An estimated 17,000 young children are being raised by LGBT parents in binational families and those children face the very real possibility of losing a parent, or leaving the only country they have ever called home. The United States can do better, and we stand with these courageous Members of Congress who are leading the way to ensure these families can be together.

This comes a long way from when Gutierrez’s CIR ASAP bill first came to light WITHOUT UAFA language, likely a move meant to keep evangelical support for the bill.

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More States Step Up Against SB1070 and Copycat Laws

  By Maegan La Mala | July 5, 2010 - 10:43 am |
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As Macha’s post earlier this morning pointed out, there are cities and states across the country taking a stand against Arizona’s SB1070 and copycat measures that are popping up all over the country.

Last week, a network of lawmakers so far representing 28 states announced their rejection of Arizona’s law which essentially legalizes racial profiling against Latinos. They are doing this by pushing pro-migrant legislation as opposed to laws that, to steal a phrase from Obama’s speech on immigration last week, put more “boots on the ground”.

  • In Iowa, for example, wage-enforcement legislation that expands opportunities and defends the rights of all workers passed the State Senate in 2008. Although it was not enacted, legislators will introduce a similar bill in 2011.
  • The legislation, proposed by Utah State Senator Luz Robles would enable legal immigrant children to receive preventive medical care through the federally-funded Medicaid and State Child Health Plus (SCHIP) programs without the current five year waiting period for immigrants included in President Obama’s recently passed health care package.
  • In Pennsylvania, legislators have taken the lead in efforts to introduce and advance community policing and anti-racial profiling legislation. Such measures would bar state and local law enforcement officers from taking on the added responsibility of enforcing federal immigration laws, while helping to curb incidents of racial profiling in the event they are required to by courts or the law.

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    Reactions to Obama’s Speech on Immigration

      By Maegan La Mala | July 2, 2010 - 7:24 am |
    6 Comments

    Organizations whose survival relies on the idea that comprehensive immigration reform is not dead or on the rise of the Democratic party machine, will take a speech like yesterday’s and spin it into a positive, over and over again. I understand that and in some ways you have to respect that tenacity.

    The Center for American Progress lavished the strongest praise on the President:

    President Barack Obama boldly showed today that he is neither giving up on immigration reform nor giving in to restrictionist measures like the one Arizona recently enacted.

    The president demonstrated great courage and conviction as he reasserted that the only solution to repairing our broken immigration system is one enacted by the federal government that is tough, practical, and fair.

    In an email sent out, SEIU took the president’s call to get Republicans moving on a bill seriously:

    In his first major address on immigration reform this morning, President Obama rolled up his sleeves and called on Republicans again to work with him on fixing our broken immigration system.

    Still, Republicans have refused to cross the aisle and work with him to deliver the comprehensive immigration reform that a vast majority of Americans want.

    So we’re asking all our members and supporters to call on the Republicans in the Senate to join the President by working together to fix our broken immigration system.

    Click here to call a Republican Senator: http://action.seiu.org/letsgettowork

    Reform Immigration FOR America, took the same approach, shifting any blame from the president or his party and focusing on Republican legislative inaction.

    The National Council of la Raza wasn’t as laudatory as it tends to be everytime Obama makes a speech. Their press release post-speech concluded:

    “America needs an answer. Comprehensive immigration reform is the solution, and the time to act is now. Politicians who stand in the way or sit on the sidelines will be held accountable on Election Day,” concluded Murguía.

    I wonder if that was meant to mean the President as well?

    Not all organizations did their usual song and dance though.
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