Brent Budowsky: Don’t laugh. Ted Cruz is apparently thinking of bringing his ability to outrage a majority of voters and alienate a majority of his Senate Republican colleagues to a campaign to be commander in chief.
Texas, Congress Go Blue If Immigration Reform Goes Down
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Brent Budowsky: Texas is indeed going Blue. The only question is when. If Republicans sabotage immigration reform, Texas Democrats may not have to wait for a Hillary Clinton presidential campaign in 2016.
GOP Rolls Dice on Immigration Reform
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Matt Barreto: Can Republicans really draw more Latino support if they back a path to citizenship? The answer is unequivocally ‘Yes’. Or if they fail to support immigration reform with a path to citizenship, they could do even worse than Mitt Romney’s all-time low among Latino voters in 2012.
Resisting Alabama’s Anti-Immigrant Legislation
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Jim Rhodes: As opposition to these insane laws began to grow, thanks to students and the Occupy movement, attacks on the laws begin to intensify.
Remembering the Benefits of IRCA, 25 Years Later
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Michele Waslin: The benefits of IRCA—as well as the bipartisan support needed to pass it—should give our current congressional leaders something to think about.
Raising Per Country Immigration Caps
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Michele Waslin: H.R. 3012 would make small but significant changes to the way green cards are distributed by eliminating per country numerical limits on employment-based green cards and raising the limits on family-based green cards which go to immigrants from each country.
Governor Jerry Brown Signs Immigration Bills that Help, Not Hurt, California’s Economy
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Seth Hoy: With an increasing unemployment rate of more than 12%, California legislators concluded that it “must pursue all avenues in facilitating and incubating job development and economic growth.”
ALEC, AT&T But Not My Credo
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Wendy Block: When I hear that AT&T and Verizon are key players with other multinationals and Republican legislators in ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, a group that advances corporate interests and undermines ours, my thoughts turn…shall we say, vehement.
Nikki Haley Signs Draconian Anti-Immigrant Bill
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Seth Hoy: Farmers in South Carolina are also worried that the new law will hurt the agriculture industry, making it harder for farmers to find workers
Alabama Governor Signs Costly Immigration Bill
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Seth Hoy: Arizona has shown us that using a “get tough” immigration law to drive undocumented immigrants out of the state is not only costly, discriminatory and unconstitutional; it’s also ineffectual in actually addressing larger immigration problems.
States Toss Costly Immigration Legislation
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Seth Hoy: Clearly, states attempting to take immigration law into their own hands will continue to face costly uphill battles. The question is not whether but when voters will notice that their leaders are putting politics before the state’s best economic interest.
Immigration Bill Too Much for Mitt to Read
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Andrea Nill: Romney has decided to play it safe by touting border security and opposing immigration reform on the grounds that he’d have to read a really long bill
Farmers Urges Lawmakers to Kill Costly Immigration Measures
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Seth Hoy: Advocates, legislators and business leaders in other states continue to warn lawmakers that these enforcement measures will cost their state much-needed revenue and jobs.
Will the 2012 Election Be 1996 All Over Again?
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Paul Hogarth: Will the 2012 election be a repeat of 1996? If so, progressives are in deep trouble – and it’s our job to stand up to this President and demand history not repeat itself.
Restrictive Immigrations Measures Dying
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Seth Hoy: The legislative graveyard got a little bit bigger this week as lawmakers in Mississippi pronounced a series of restrictive immigration measures dead.
States Playing with Enforcement-Only Fire Likely to Get Burned
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Seth Hoy: Perhaps if state lawmakers listened to their constituents and considered the economic consequences, they might realize that playing with enforcement-only immigration is a surefire way to burn down your state’s economy.
Will State Legislators Continue to Pull the Plug on Restrictive Immigration Measures?
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Seth Hoy: While some state lawmakers reject the enforcement-only approach to immigration, others—like state Sen. Russell Pearce, author of Arizona’s SB 1070—continued to sink their state in restrictionist quicksand.
Some States “Just Say No” to Harmful Immigration Enforcement Laws
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Seth Hoy: Tennessee, Oklahoma, Kansas and Arizona are still pursing harmful enforcement legislation, but they do so in full light of the social and economic consequences—consequences for which Arizona and other states are still paying.
States Contemplating Enforcement Legislation Continue to Walk the Line
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Seth Hoy: Sadly, however, state legislators seem determined to act against their state’s best interests and move forward on restrictive immigration laws, which have been proven time and time again to hurt small businesses, law enforcement and the pocket books of the constituents they claim to represent.
Orrin Hatch Calls Vote On Immigration Bill He Once Co-Sponsored ‘A Cynical Exercise’
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Andrea Nill: Hatch’s flip-flop may have something to do with the fact that he’s up for reelection in 2012 and has already been identified as the tea party’s next target.
Will Local Lawmakers Take the Immigration Enforcement Bait?
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Seth Hoy: As local lawmakers begin to lay the groundwork for next year’s legislative agenda, some conservative legislators are attempting to prioritize immigration enforcement ahead of efforts to jump-start flagging economies.
Pelosi, Reid to Push DREAM Act in Lame Duck
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Seth Hoy: If Reid can nudge the Dream Act through the Senate while Democrats are still in charge of the House, the bill has a real chance to become law, advocates say.
Senators Menendez and Leahy Introduce the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2010
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While this bill provides a strong starting point for Congress to honestly debate meaningful immigration reforms, many wonder whether obstructionists in Congress will continue to use immigration as a political piñata in the name of election politics or put partisanship aside and fix our broken immigration system.
DREAM Act Delayed in the Senate, But DREAMers Continue
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Seth Hoy: Maybe Congressional promises to keep fighting for the DREAM Act are enough; maybe they aren’t. But what the DREAMers can take heart in is the energy and enthusiasm they reverberated through the Senate this week.
Florida Legislators Oppose Proposed Anti-Immigration Legislation
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Seth Hoy: Bipartisan opposition to Florida’s proposed anti-immigrant legislation is a rare example of those who actually prioritize policy over politics.
SB1070-Inspired Activity Continues in the States
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Michele Waslin: Even though a judge ruled that it could not be implemented, Arizona’s immigration law, SB1070, has sparked a great deal of activity across the U.S. Unfortunately, it’s not the type of activity that’s going to result in meaningful solutions.
SB-1070 Proponents Accuse DOJ for Not Going After ‘Sanctuary Cities’
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Andrea Nill: Proponents of Arizona’s new immigration law, SB-1070, have a new talking point: they are now arguing that if the Department of Justice (DOJ) is going to legally challenge SB-1070, it should also go after “sanctuary city” policies as well. “Sanctuary city” is a right-wing derisive term used to describe cities that have adopted community policing policies that prevent police from asking about the immigration status of or detaining and arresting immigrants solely for being undocumented.
Arizona Shooting of Latino Man Considered a Hate Crime
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Andrea Nill: At this point, it’s difficult to verify what role, if any, SB-1070 played in Varela’s death. However, chances are the law has made an already toxic atmosphere worse. A growing number of Latinos are already the targets of discrimination and hate crimes in the U.S. SB-1070 has only exploited the public’s frustration with federal government inaction and played to their worst instincts.
Physician Warns That Arizona Immigration Law Could Turn Doctors Into Criminals
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Andrea Nill: Lucas Restrepo, M.D., published a piece in the New England Journal of Medicine that provided a whole new angle on the effect SB-1070 will have on the medical profession. Restrepo points out that, under the law, health care providers who treat undocumented immigrants could be considered criminals.
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