Progressive Media Advocates
Michele Waslin: Advocates are going to expend much time and energy fighting yet another enforcement-only program that—absent legalization and other reforms—does nothing to fix our broken immigration system but has extremely negative consequences for law abiding employers and U.S. workers.
Andrea Nill Sanchez: Statistics released this week revealed that Hispanics now comprise nearly half of all people sentenced for federal felony crimes, a number swollen by immigration offenses.
Seth Hoy: Despite repeated warnings from business groups, tourism and industry boards and advocates about the hefty price tag attached to Arizona-style legislation, state lawmakers continued to push “get tough” copycat proposals.
Andrea Nill: Obama always made clear that immigration reform stood in a line with health care reform, energy legislation, and financial regulatory changes and that at least a few Republicans are needed to pass a bill.
Andrea Nill: In his dissent, Justice Breyer wrote that “either directly or through the uncertainty that it creates, the Arizona statute will impose additional burdens upon lawful employment”.
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.
Michele Waslin: Immigrants can start new businesses here, but they’re doing it somewhere else in recent years due to our complicated and dysfunctional immigration system.
Let’s allow those already in the country to stay and contribute without fear. Give them citizenship and collect taxes vs forcing them to hide. Then put in place a policy that treats the future arrivals the same as the laureates.
Michele Waslin: The program, which shares the fingerprints of individuals booked into jails with federal immigration databases, has been widely criticized for failing to target serious criminals, for increasing the potential for racial profiling, and for failing to be transparent.
Seth Hoy: This week, Rep. Lofgren called for an investigation into the actions of federal immigration officials whom she said lied about whether states and localities had the right to opt-out of the program.
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
Andrea Nill: Has the U.S. purposefully chosen to put the only consulate in Mexico with the capacity to issue immigrant visas in the country’s most dangerous city?
Seth Hoy: Instead of defending the Administration’s enforcement strategy, however, maybe Secretary Napolitano should take a serious look at the egregious enforcement actions taking place right under her nose.
Seth Hoy: The legislative graveyard got a little bit bigger this week as lawmakers in Mississippi pronounced a series of restrictive immigration measures dead.
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.
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.
Seth Hoy: As Arizona-style enforcement legislation continues to work its way through state legislatures, local business and industry groups are beginning to realize just how much these laws will affect the way they do business.
Andrea Nill: The bill also seeks to put companies that do not use the federal electronic employment verification system out of business and would require cities to evict anyone in public housing who cannot prove they are in the U.S. legally.
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.
Andrea Nill: SB-1405 would require hospitals to conduct an immigration status check before admitting a patient for non-emergency care. If the person is in the country illegally, hospitals will be forced to report the patient to federal authorities.
Seth Hoy: As many states face budget deficits in 2011, lawmakers might be asking their constituents the same question as those Capitol One commercials, “What’s in your wallet?”
Anthony Samad: On education, immigration, the green environment, and of course, jobs, President Obama helped even Republicans understand that the only way the country was going to move ahead was, together.
Andrea Nill: The Bush brothers don’t appear ready to fully acknowledge the role their party has played in stoking nativism and killing the chances for sensible immigration reform in the near future.
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.
Andrea Nill: The focus of Dupnik’s controversial statements was not immigration. However, it is no coincidence that Americans Against Immigration Amnesty is going after one of the most vocal critics of Arizona’s immigration law.
Michele Waslin: Most importantly, worksite enforcement can only be truly effective if done in conjunction with comprehensive immigration reform—something President Obama alluded to in the State of the Union Address last night and Rep. Zoe Lofgren addressed in today’s hearing.
Michele Waslin: Until we focus on policy reforms that improve our immigration system in an honest, fair and effective way instead of disseminating myths and misinformation that divide us, we are destined to keep spinning our wheels with no real improvements to our system.
Andrea Nill: Senate Bill 6 would cost Kentucky a net $40 million a year in court, prison and foster-care costs. Yet, the Kentucky senate voted 24-14 last week to pass the bill without knowing its cost.
Seth Hoy: A group of state legislators, State Legislators for Legal Immigration, presented two measures intended to prevent the American-born children of undocumented immigrants from automatically becoming citizens
Benjamin called on the President to use his power as Commander-In-Chief to close Guantanamo prison, release the 86 Guantanamo prisoners who have been cleared for release, and stop the killer drone program
Angola 3 News: Hidden behind the walls, huge numbers of human beings have their spirits broken daily. Secretly, many suffer false disciplinary reports, illegitimate confiscation or destruction of personal property, physical beatings, rape, and sometimes fraudulent criminal penalties.
Tina Dupuy: Because these giant corporations are getting a free pass by the very premise they create jobs, they’re in essence piling their tax burden onto their workers.
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