Immigration Raids
Immigration Reform Gets Boost from a “Higher Power”
A broad interfaith coalition has begun a series of nationwide prayer vigils to raise awareness of the need for comprehensive immigration reform. "Prayer, Renewal and Action on Immigration" is the name of the campaign launched this week with help from U.S. Reps. Luis V. Gutierrez and Mike Honda. The coalition has also prepared a platform on immigration, signed by over 500 congregations from coast to coast, which asks the new President and Congress to uphold family unity, along with creating a process for earning legal status, implementing worker protections, restoring due process and facilitating immigrant integration. Read More
Hundreds March Around Country March for Immigration Reform
Yesterday groups of immigrants, community members, faith leaders and advocates gathered around the country to march and call upon the new Obama Administration to move forward with immigration reform including a path to citizenship for the approximately 12 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. Diverse groups of immigrants and their supporters in Washington, DC, San Francisco, Fresno, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, New York, Houston, Santa Maria, and Milwaukee called for an end to heavy-handed enforcement tactics that cost millions of dollars and are harmful to American communities. Read More
A Secretary of Labor Who’ll Work for All Workers
Working people finally have a fighter in their corner, with Hilda Solis almost certain to be confirmed as the next Secretary of Labor. The California Congresswoman has been a loyal champion for working families, fighting for the rights, interest, and safety of all workers-both immigrant and native-born. Solis has, as Marie Cocco puts it, "a record of unstinting loyalty to those who work and want to work, and who wish to receive in exchange a decent wage and a measure of dignity." As the child of immigrants and the first to attend college in her family, she knows how important it is that everyone who works hard in America has the opportunity to achieve the American Dream. She understands that all workers make hard choices and tremendous sacrifices in order to support their families and build a better future and that it's the interests and lives of these working people that should be at the heart of any reform of our immigration laws. Read More
Separating Fact From Fiction About Immigrants and Crime
The perennially hot, and inflammatory, question of whether or not immigration is related to crime has yielded front-page stories in both the Washington Post and New York Times over the past two days. In different ways, each of these stories highlights the extent to which the myth of a supposed link between crime and immigration has long been based on emotion rather than fact. Although study upon study over the past century has demonstrated that immigration is not associated with more crime, the "myth of immigrant criminality" persists. Read More
Madoff Scandal Hits Immigration Group
CBS Reports: "Groups that were helping the most, were hurt the most." Millionares, movie stars, and prestigious universities weren't the only ones affected by the Berni Madoff $50 billion Ponzi investment scandal. Dozens of public interest organizations have been hit by the disastrous collapse of Madoff's scheme, including the Heartland Alliance, which runs the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) and lost one-third of its funding. NIJC received a $720,000 grant this year from the JEHT foundation, a New York organization that funded groups working to reform the criminal justice system. However, the Madoff scandal has forced the JEHT foundation to halt all grant making-leaving NIJC without two thirds of the money it was banking on. Read More
All gifts are matched dollar for dollar
No one should face the immigration system alone
