Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Voter ID Laws Add More Fuel to Immigration Debate

vote-here

According to a recent Fox News poll, 70% of Americans favor voter ID laws, which is criticized by minority groups as a tool for intimidation. Voter ID laws, which vary by state, require any voter to provide proof of citizenship and legal residence. Some minority groups are critical of this type of legislation, noting that [...]

Rubio Meets with Latino Democrats on Proposed Dream Act

dream-act1

Senator Marco Rubio met with Senator Robert Menendez, Representative Charles Gonzales and Representative Luis Gutierrez to discuss Rubio’s plan for a new proposed version of the Dream Act. Rubio’s version, unlike the version that Democrats have introduced in the Senate which would provide qualified young individuals with a clear path to permanent legal residency or [...]

Guest Blogger: Arturo Vargas “Reaching the Finish Line”

Arturo Vargas NALEO

Imagine that you are standing on a track, about to run toward a distant finish line.  Suddenly, a wall appears between you and the finish line, and then another, and yet another after that. Over the course of the past decade, states have raced each other to construct more and higher walls in the way [...]

SB1070 Before Supreme Court Wednesday: What You Need To Know

Two years worth of posturing and protesting, testing and taunting, about immigration and states rights will come to a head this Wednesday when both sides of Arizona’s controversial SB1070 argue their case before the Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court. Here’s what you need to know: the law passed by the Arizona legislature and signed [...]

“Illegal Immigrant” Term Offensive to Nearly Half of Latino Voters

No-human-is-illegal

Nearly half of Latino Voters, 46%, find the term “illegal immigrant” offensive, according to a recent poll conducted by Fox News Latino. The term has become one of the most inflammatory terms in relation to the ongoing immigration debate during this election cycle. “Calling people illegal or an illegal immigrant has become normalized even though [...]

Alabama’s Anti-Immigrant Law Backfires, Creating a New Civil Rights Movement

HB56 notinmyamerica

Alabama’s show-me-your-papers law, HB56, threatens to turn the clock back to a time when hardworking men and women were persecuted because of the color of their skin. The law legitimizes racial profiling, terrorizes people of color throughout the state, frightens children, and harms the state’s economy. Sound familiar? Alabama’s past — post emancipation years characterized [...]

New Haven Mayor Seeks Voting Rights for Undocumented Immigrants

John DeStefano

The mayor of New Haven, Conn., John DeStefano has pledged to pursue legal state action that would allow undocumented immigrants to vote in municipal elections. The 10-term Democratic mayor, who along with New Haven has an immigrant-friendly reputation, believes that this proposal has the capacity to create a more engaged community. “If you live here, [...]

U.S.-Mexico Border Arrests Drop to Lowest Level in Decades

USMexico Border

The number of undocumented immigrants apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border in the past fiscal year dropped to the lowest it’s been since the 1970s. According to statistics from the Department of Homeland Security released in late November, the total number of apprehensions, 327,577, is 53.5% lower than it was in 2008. The peak was in 2000, when 1.6 million [...]

Majority of Americans Support Undocumented Immigrants Staying in U.S.

Statue of Liberty w Flag

A new poll found that a substantial majority of Americans would prefer allowing some or all undocumented immigrants to remain in the U.S. The United Technologies/National Journal Congressional Connection poll asked 1,008 adults what should be done with respect to the roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country. Of the individuals polled, 39% said [...]

Majority of Undocumented Immigrants Have Lived in U.S. over 10 Years

Latino Flag

A new study found that nearly two-thirds of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. have lived here for at least 10 years. The study by the Pew Hispanic Center, based on the U.S. Census Bureau’s March 2010 Current Population Survey, found that out of the estimated 10.2 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S., 35% of them [...]