Wednesday, May 22, 2013

DREAMers Meet With President Obama at The White House

obamameetsimmigrantfamilies

A group of seven DREAMers were invited to speak to President Obama in the Oval Office about the toll of the current immigration system, while emphasizing how their lives have changed thanks to deferred action. According to a White House statement, “the President reiterated his commitment to passing a bipartisan, commonsense immigration reform bill this year [...]

Bipartisan House Group Announces a Deal on Immigration Legislation

House

        On Thursday a bipartisan group of House members declared a deal on immigration legislation. “We have an agreement in principle. We’re now going to work on finishing up the drafting of the bill,” said Rep. John Carter, R-Texas, a leader of the group. This announcement came after several months of meeting [...]

Guest Blogger: Julie Chavez Rodriguez “What Health Reform Means for Latinos – and Young Sisters”

Julie-Chavez-Rodriguez

Mayra Alvarez, Director of Public Health Policy in the Office of Health Reform at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, recently wrote an op-ed for NBC Latino encouraging her younger sister Alejandra and others to register for the Health Insurance Marketplace, which opens in October 2013. The Marketplace is one of the many important provisions of [...]

May Day Protesters Marched In Support of Immigration Reform

May Day Rally

Thousands of the people gathered across the country on Wednesday urging Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform during a rally celebrating International Workers Day. “We’re here to demand political change and fair immigration reform,” said Gabriel Zamora, a janitor and undocumented immigrant who crossed the border from Tijuana eight years ago. Protestors gathered in major [...]

Obama Prepares for Mexico

In light of his scheduled trip to Mexico, President Barack Obama met with leaders of Latino groups on Monday. Obama met with leaders from the National Council of La Raza, theNational Hispanic Council on Aging, the League of United Latin American Citizens, and the NDN in addition to several other groups. In the meeting, the [...]

George W. Bush’s Positive Impact on the Latino Trajectory

Former President George W. Bush’s legacy suggests he is favored much more by Latinos than any other Republican candidate in the U.S. particularly for his work on immigration. “Republicans would do very well to try to emulate President Bush’s stance toward immigrants,” says Carlos Gutierrez, former Secretary of Labor. A look back to Bush’s legacy comes [...]

Rate of Latino Entrepreneurs Doubled Since 1996

Latino Entrepreneurs

A new report from the Kauffman Foundation states that nearly 20% of the people who opened new businesses in 2012 were Latinos. The new study says that even though entrepreneurship has declined in numbers nationally, the amount of Latino entrepreneurs has doubled since 1996. “The Latino rate is higher than the rate for African-Americans, Asians, [...]

Seven Takeaways from Monday’s Immigration Reform Hearing

Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee held on Monday the second hearing on the immigration reform bill introduced last week by the “Gang of Eight.” The hearing, which lasted more than seven hours, included testimonies from a long list of immigration reform advocates, critics, scholars and elected officials. At times, there were heated discussions over [...]

Guest Blogger: Gus West “Internet Doesn’t Need More Rules”

Gus West

The Obama administration will soon be looking for a new top telecommunications cop. Federal Communications Commission Chair Julius Genachowski recently announced that he’d soon be leaving his post. Some are calling for the next FCC chair to aggressively police the Internet and exert a tighter regulatory hold over the firms that have built its backbone. [...]

Guest Blogger: Professor Ediberto Román and Bobby Joe Bracy “Words Do Matter in the Immigration Debate”

E Roman and Bobby Joe

After decades of inaction, this week’s unveiling of the Senate’s “Gang of Eight” immigration proposal suggests that Congress may finally be prepared to reform our immigration system. It is of no surprise that this renewed vigor comes on the heels of a presidential election where an overwhelming majority of Hispanic voters rejected the Republican solution [...]