Immigration Reform
The last time Congress updated our legal immigration system was November 1990, one month before the World Wide Web went online. We are long overdue for comprehensive immigration reform.
Through immigration reform, we can provide noncitizens with a system of justice that provides due process of law and a meaningful opportunity to be heard. Because it can be a contentious and wide-ranging issue, we aim to provide advocates with facts and work to move bipartisan solutions forward. Read more about topics like legalization for undocumented immigrants and border security below.
State Lawmakers from Critical States Speak Out in Favor of DREAM Act
Washington D.C. – Today, a group of state legislators from Colorado, Massachusetts, Maine, Texas, and Utah participated in a briefing to share their support for federal legislation know as the DREAM Act. The bi-partisan DREAM Act passed the House of Representatives and awaits a final vote in the Senate in… Read More
Mayor Bloomberg: The DREAM Act Makes Dollars and Sense
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently banded together with other titans of industry—media magnate Rupert Murdoch, Goldman Sach’s Lloyd Blankfein, Kenneth Chenault of American Express—to reiterate what academics and advocates have been saying for years: immigrants are critically important in “doing the work and creating the businesses that keep our economy strong and growing.” Mayor Bloomberg is one of the founders of Partnership for a New American Economy, a growing bipartisan group of mayors and business leaders who are urging others to consider the economic benefits of immigration reform. Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis (the daughter of immigrants) also recently stepped forward to highlight the benefits of DREAM and the value of keeping talented students in the U.S. Read More
Academic Community Rallies Behind DREAM Act
As public support for the DREAM Act continues to mount in the build up to a Senate vote, the academic community is stepping forward on behalf of undocumented youth who call America home. Today, noted immigration scholars from Princeton, the University of North Carolina, NYU, UC-Irvine, and the University of Washington banded together to discuss why punishing the children of undocumented immigrants is a bad idea and why NOT passing the DREAM Act would prevent undocumented youth from giving back to the American economy. Today’s discussion follows the release of a letter signed by nearly 300 scholars from the around the U.S. urging Congress to pass the DREAM Act. To date, at least 29 higher educations associations including U.S. Students Association (USSA) and the College Board and presidents and chancellors from more than 73 colleges and universities have publicly endorsed the bill. Read More
Say What? Senators’ Reasons for Opposing the DREAM Act in Dire Need of Truthiness
After Sen. Harry Reid tabled a vote on the DREAM Act this week in order to take up the passed House version of the bill next week, thousands of students, advocates and community leaders have and will continue to urge their Senators to pass the DREAM Act. Unfortunately, some of these calls are being answered with excuses—excuses which are in dire need of what Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert would call “truthiness.” Disagreeing with a specific piece of legislation based on its merits is one thing, but making up your own facts out of political convenience is just plain wrong. It’s also an incredible disservice to your constituency and the American public. The following are excuses reiterated by Senators who have previously voted for the DREAM Act but who may now vote against it. The facts follow their excuses. Read More
Still DREAMing: DREAM Act Vote Delayed in Senate
Last night, the House passed the DREAM Act by a vote of 216-198, with 208 Democrats and 8 Republicans voting in favor. The version of the DREAM Act that passed the House, H.R. 6497, was slightly modified from the Senate version by breaking up the conditional nonimmigrant status into two five-year periods, and requiring aliens to apply for an extension of their conditional nonimmigrant status after the first five-year period has elapsed as well. The applicants would have to pay a $525 surcharge at the initial application and a $2,000 surcharge at the beginning of the second five year period. The Senate version required no surcharges. Read More
DREAM Act Vote Imminent in House and Senate: Congressional Budget Office Says Both Bills Are Good for the Economy
Both the House and the Senate are schedule to take up the DREAM Act this evening, though both chambers are voting on slightly different bills under different procedures. The House is scheduled to vote shortly on H.R. 6497, while the Senate moves to a vote on whether to proceed to its own version of the DREAM Act, S. 3992. Read More
White House Continues Drumbeat for DREAM
Amidst the steady stream of action by DREAM Act supporters over the last few weeks—candlelight vigils, hunger strikes, Hill visits—the White House has also upped its game, turning out its political heavyweights to emphasize the importance of DREAM. This morning, Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Dr. Clifford Stanley joined White House Director of Intergovernmental Affairs, Cecilia Munoz, to discuss how passage of the DREAM Act would benefit military readiness. This marks yet another showing of support by the Obama Administration in recent weeks as Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano have all spoken publically on the benfits of DREAM. Although President Obama has always been a supporter of the bill, this heightened push is only the most recent evidence that immigration remains a priority for the White House—both on its merits and as a potent political symbol in 2012. The Senate is likely to vote on whether to invoke cloture on the DREAM Act tomorrow. Read More
Why the DREAM Act Just Makes Sense
The pieces may just be starting to fall together for passage of the DREAM Act as more and more high profile figures lend their support with one simple message—the DREAM Act just makes sense. After ten long years, the House looks poised to take up DREAM next week. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer has declared that the Democrats believe they have the necessary votes to pass the legislation—and passage in the House could go a long way to creating the momentum needed for 60 votes in the Senate. The most obvious signal that DREAM might actually pass, however, is the increasingly desperate tone of anti-immigration groups, who are basically urging the public to call Congress and say that DREAM allows undocumented students to steal college slots, public benefits and jobs from Americans. Not only is this the same argument they trot out for every immigration issue, but it has been contradicted by so many sources that it sounds like an increasingly shrill cry of desperation. Read More
Restrictionist Group Continues Cynical Legacy of Counting Costs While Ignoring Benefits
In a new report, the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) paints a misleading financial portrait of the DREAM Act. The report, entitled Estimating the Impact of the DREAM Act, claims that the bill would be a burden on U.S. taxpayers and would “crowd out” native-born students in the… Read More
How Much Conservative Muscle Will It Take To Lift the DREAM Act?
While some would have you believe that immigration reform is a liberal issue championed only by Democrats, past debates and prior attempts to pass immigration reform have shown us that Republicans and conservatives are champions as well. Granted some of the most stalwart Republican supporters have recently turned their back on reasonable debate (think John McCain’s “build the dang fence” and Lindsey Graham’s summer flirtation with repealing birthright citizenship), yet immigration reform still enjoys the support of important conservative leaders—leaders like Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana and the Diaz-Balart brothers of Florida. Congress can’t pass the DREAM Act without Republican support, but how much conservative muscle will it take to finally make this bipartisan legislation a reality? Read More
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No one should face the immigration system alone
