Musings on Immigration

There has been a lot of casting of blame for this last weekend's vote against a sensible and compassionate immigration bill that would have given hope and a future to hundreds of thousands of immigrant children. Most of the pointing fingers direct blame at the Republicans for their "filibuster" of the DREAM Act. Without dispute the Republicans have, in fact, adopted a virulent anti-immigration position that will ultimately lead to minority status for the party . But Republicans are not the reason the DREAM Act failed. Everyone knew that Republicans would not vote for the DREAM Act. The only three Republicans who did vote for the DREAM Act either are leaving Congress or do not have a concern about the right wing of the party. So, if the Republicans are not to blame, who is? President Obama and the Democrats. Really. Here are 5 reasons why President Obama is to blame for the failure of immigration reform. 1. Five Democratic Senators abandoned the party and voted a...

I just ran across this blog by James Sinclair detailing the lies of the opponents of the DREAM Act. It is well worth your time reading it.

Gabe Gonzales of the Huffington Post posted some interesting thoughts about race and the Dream Act. On December 13th he stated: "I want to thank and applaud the candor of Rep. Dana Rohrabacher from California and Glenn Beck of Fox News. They finally had the courage and audacity to say what so many of us knew to be true but would never admit. The immigration debate is not about law, not about fairness, not about justice. It's about race. Plain and simple. It's about the fear of more brown people coming into our society, our culture. When debating the DREAM act, Rohrabacher said, "This legislation not only increases the burden on our hard-pressed government programs and services, but will give foreigners who are here illegally preference over non-minority citizens." Non-minority citizens. Hmmm. That's an interesting phrase. Whatever do you mean Rep. Rohrabacher? We all know what he means. "Non-minority citizens" means "white peop...

Lino Rodriguez, an attorney at Kuck Immigration Partners, responds to Senator Isakson's Mean spirited response to a request that he be a DREAM Act Sponsor Dear Senator Isakson, First off let me say that I hope, and pray, that the DREAM Act succeeds, as it is both fiscally and humanely a step in the right direction. As a constituent I am deeply disappointed in your stance on the matter. In your e-mail you write: • “I believe the DREAM Act would reward those who have obtained an education in a system in which they have not contributed.” With all due respect, this is simply not the truth. These children and their parents pay into our system daily through sales taxes, property taxes, and even income taxes (through the use a Tax ID number). Moreover, these families boost our economy through their day to day spending. To say that they have not contributed to the system is a gross overstatement. Many of these young adults have taken it upon themselves to continue their education whil...

You know, when you appear on Fox News that the questions are going to be tough. That is what I love about this discussion--Tough questions, Tough answers: Russ and I spoke both before and after this segment about Immigration and Immigration Reform. What I admire about him, is that he get both sides of the debate and understands that we are all going to have to settle somewhere in the middle.

I originally posted this at the A ILA Leadership Blog. The next goal of the anti-immigration crowd is to eliminate what some call “birthright” citizenship. This is a derogatory way of saying the following: If you are born in the United States, you are a citizen by right of birth in the United States. This was not always the case in America, at least as it applied to African Americans or Native Americans. It took the Civil War, and the 14 th Amendment, to ensure that anyone born in the United States “and subject to the jurisdiction thereof” is a United States Citizen. Have no doubt about it, despite what you will read below, the anti-immigrant movement, including folks like new Arizona Senate President Russell Pearce , and new Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach have plans in the works to try to destroy this fundamental and well settled constitutional issue. For folks like Pearce and Kobach (see the picture above from his campaign website) the overriding concern is not the rule of...

Yikes--just when you thought this election season could not get any crazier. Last Wednesday, a Tea Party Congressional candidate from Arizona, Jesse Kelly, appeared on the Mark Levin show. Kelly stated that "rumors" were floating around that "Mexicans" were going to be bused in to vote against him in the election. LEVIN: You’re gonna have to squeeze out every single vote there plus some because they’re gonna pull their dirty tricks like they always do, Jess. KELLY: They already are down here. We’re already getting reports of voter fraud. Especially in one of the counties in my district there is actually rumors — people have video of them busing people across from our southern border. We’re a border district. They literally bus people across from Mexico to have them vote at the polls on election day, give them a meal, and then bus them back. So we’re really fighting against that down here. You can listen to this segment here in case you cannot believe what you read...