And in Latino News...

A Moment of Truth on Immigration Reform

18 March 2010

The tipping point is here. The time has come. In all political and social movements there comes a moment when the confluence of events is so powerful they just can’t be ignored or dismissed. The long-running effort for comprehensive immigration reform is one such movement and its moment of truth is at hand. Our immigration system is badly broken and a majority of Americans support reform. The White House supports it. Most Democrats and some Republicans are prepared to vote for it. Only a vocal minority oppose it. Yet the question remains whether President Obama will make a forceful and public push for reform legislation, and whether Congress has the guts to pass it.

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Targeting illegal immigrants, Arizona goes too far

18 March 2010

IN ARIZONA, where the official malice directed at immigrants who came to the United States illegally is unsurpassed, Republican lawmakers are pushing a bill that would criminalize every such immigrant just for being in the state. It's the latest attempt to harass, intimidate and hound the state's several hundred thousand undocumented residents. Until now, only police departments that have entered into deals with the federal government have been empowered to arrest people on suspicion that they lack proper documentation. The bill, which is expected to clear the legislature in the near future, would broaden that authority and allow such arrests statewide by expanding the definition of trespassing to include the immigrants' mere presence in the state.

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Posted in Demographics, Immigration, Latino Community, PoliticsComments (0)

Obama Links Immigration Overhaul in 2010 to G.O.P. Backing

18 March 2010

President Obama said Thursday that he would proceed with an overhaul of the immigration system this year if he could attract substantial Republican support. But a leading Republican who supports an overhaul said an immigration bill could not go forward if the president used a legislative shortcut sidestepping Republicans to pass his health care bill. Mr. Obama spent most of the afternoon in meetings on immigration, including one with Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, and Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, who have been holding closed-door sessions over the last six months to draw up a bill to revamp the immigration system.

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Washington to see “anti Tea Party” on Sunday

18 March 2010

It has been my running gag in recent days – President Barack Obama will get a victory this week on health care, only to have his weekend celebration squashed by the sight of 100,000 Latinos and other activists telling him he needs to get off his duff and do something about immigration reform. Now I don’t know exactly when the health care reform measure that has dominated attention for the past year will come up for its final vote in the House of Representatives. But it literally is true that there are people who are prepared to show their disgust over the lack of similar activity with regards to immigration reform.

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False immigration raid rumor has Latino community anxious

18 March 2010

A local Latino civil rights organization is dismissing rumors spreading through the immigrant community of arrests at a Trenton supermarket and at Walmart stores as a "cruel, inhumane hoax." There is no evidence that an immigration raid took place Saturday in the parking lot of the Food Bazaar in South Trenton's Roebling Shopping Center, as many in the Hispanic immigrant community believe, according to the Latin American Legal Defense and Education Fund in Princeton.

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Obama on Immigration: Then and Now

18 March 2010

Three years ago, when I met with Senator Barack Obama in his Chicago office and we contemplated his possible run for the presidency, I was enthusiastic. On that day, it was hard for me to imagine a time I would have to say no to Barack Obama when he asked me for support. But last week, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus sat down with the president, and he asked us to vote for the health care reform bill -- a bill that denies immigrants the opportunity to purchase health care with their own money. It was one more in a string of disappointments for the Hispanic community, and today, I no longer find myself able to confidently say "yes" when President Obama asks me for his support.

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