Arizona immigration employment law upheld by the Supremes

The law imposes severe penalties on businesses that hire illegal immigrants.  Justice Roberts stated in the first part of the opinion, joined by Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Anthony Kennedy and Samuel Alito, upholding the law as not explicitly preempted.

http://jurist.org/paperchase/2011/05/supreme-court-upholds-arizona-immigration-employment-law.php

What's really going on...follow the money!

WHITE HOUSE CONFERENCE CALL- today at noon

Immigration Action Roundtables | The White House

www.whitehouse.gov

WhiteHouse.gov is the official web site for the White House and President Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States. This site is a source for information about the President, White House news and policies, White House history, and the federal government.

WHITE HOUSE CONFERENCE CALL: WHAT: Conference Call with Stakeholders on President Obama's Immigration Speech and Next Steps

WHEN: Wednesday, May 11, 2011 - 1PM ET/12PM CT/11AM MT/10AM PT

HOW: (800) 398-9367 Code: White House Immigration Call
...
Stephanie Valencia Ramirez
Associate Director
White House | Office of Public Engagement
svalencia@who.eop.gov
www.whitehouse.gov/hispanicSee More

Nebraska's DREAMERS request our support

Open letter from Nebraska DREAMERS (NEDA):

Dear NEDA Allies & Friends:

Today, Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-IL), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and others will hold a press conference to announce the re-introduction of the DREAM Act and we need your support in getting this piece of legislation to pass the senate floor.

The DREAM Act stands for the Developmental Relief and Education of Alien Minors Act, a bipartisan bill that would allow undocumented students to be put on a path to citizenship by attending college and/or joining the military while meeting specific requirements. The bill was previously stalled in the senate by a shortage of 6 votes. Our Nebraska senators both Democrat Ben Nelson and Republican Mike Johanns voted against the bill. This is our chance to mend the mistakes of the past. We strongly believe this time around we have a better chance of getting this bill through.  It includes the largest number of original cosponsors we have ever had (32); all of the Majority leadership (Reid, Durbin, Schumer, and Murray), the Chairs of all of the relevant Committees (Leahy, Levin, and Lieberman), and all 10 Democratic members of the Judiciary Committee.

We ask that you help us by signing the National 2011 DREAM Act petition, e-mailing, calling our Nebraska senators and representatives and asking for their support. We ask that you help us in this fight for equal opportunity for young people. Help give immigrant youth the right to an education and the privilege to serve the U.S. armed forces. This is a guaranteed investment for the country. The DREAM Act will bring a boost to the economy and it is crucial to competing with other nations. The country needs more professionals now that the ‘Baby Boomers’ are at the age of retirement. We need to fill those positions with capable young people. We must stop criminalizing the undiscovered talent living in the shadows and living in fear of deportation.

Thank you for your support,

Nebraska Dream Alliance

NEDA2011mail@gmail.com

here is a link to Senator Dick Durbin’s live press conference at 10am ET/9 am CT : http://durbin.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/hot-topics?ContentRecord_id=43eaa136-a3de-4d72-bc1b-12c3000f0ae9 attachments: a one-page summary of the bill to be introduced

DREAM Act is alive again---Watch the Breaking News

Watch the DREAM Act Introduction
Press Conference LIVE Above
Video feed will begin at
10:15 AM ET May 11th, 2011

The DREAM Act would allow a select group of immigrant students with great potential to contribute more fully to America. These young people were brought to the U.S. as children and should not be punished for their parents’ mistakes. The DREAM Act would give these students a chance to earn legal status if they:

• Came to the U.S. as children (15 or under)
• Are long-term U.S. residents (continuous physical presence for at least five years)
• Have good moral character
• Graduate from high school or obtain a GED
• Complete two years of college or military service in good standing

The DREAM Act would benefit the U.S. Armed Forces. Tens of thousands of highly-qualified, well-educated young people would enlist in the Armed Forces if the DREAM Act becomes law. The Defense Department’s FY 2010-12 Strategic Plan includes the DREAM Act as a means to help “shape and maintain a mission-ready All Volunteer Force.” Defense Secretary Gates, who supports the DREAM Act, says it “will result in improved recruitment results and attendant gains in unit manning and military performance.” General Colin Powell has also endorsed the DREAM Act, saying, “Immigration is what’s keeping this country’s lifeblood moving forward.”

The DREAM Act would stimulate the American economy. A UCLA study concluded that DREAM Act participants could contribute $1.4-$3.6 trillion to the U.S. economy during their working lives. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who supports the DREAM Act, says, “They are just the kind of immigrants we need to help solve our unemployment problem. It is senseless for us to chase out the home-grown talent that has the potential to contribute so significantly to our society.”

The DREAM Act includes important restrictions to prevent abuse. DREAM Act participants are not eligible for Pell and other federal grants and are subject to tough criminal penalties for fraud. DREAM Act applicants must apply within one year of obtaining a high school degree/GED or the bill’s enactment; and must prove eligibility by a preponderance of the evidence. To be eligible, an individual must submit biometric information; undergo background checks and a medical exam; register for the Selective Service; demonstrate the ability to read, write, and speak English; and demonstrate knowledge of the history and government of the U.S. An individual cannot qualify if he or she is ineligible for immigration relief on criminal or national security grounds.

The DREAM Act has broad bipartisan support in Congress and from the American people. In the 111th Congress, the DREAM Act passed the House and received a strong bipartisan majority vote from 55 Senators. According to a recent poll by Opinion Research Corporation, 70% of likely voters favor the DREAM Act, including 60% of Republicans.

The DREAM Act is supported by labor, business, education, civil rights and religious groups, including the AFL-CIO, the National PTA, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the CEOs of Fortune 100 companies like Microsoft and Pfizer, and dozens of colleges and universities.


http://durbin.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/hot-topics?ID=43eaa136-a3de-4d72-bc1b-12c3000f0ae9

Passing the DREAM Act - Hot Topics - Home - U.S. Senator Dick Durbin

Watch the DREAM Act Introduction
Press Conference LIVE Above
Video feed will begin at
9:15 AM CT May 11th, 2011

Click on link:  Passing the DREAM Act - Hot Topics - Home - U.S. Senator Dick Durbin

NY Times Lets Racist Groups Distance Themselves From Racist Founder

"Posted by  Micah Uetricht

April 27th, 2011

Last week Nick Mendoza debunked Dr. John Tanton’s original reasons for pushing an anti-immigrant/environmentalist agenda when he founded three highly influential national anti-immigrant groups, as described in a recent New York Times profile. But beyond Tanton’s bogus green/xenophobic link, the piece itself is problematic. The Times should have taken a closer look at some of Tanton’s organizations’ recent reports and staff members’ statements. They reveal that these groups have always staked a far-right position on immigration that includes dehumanization of immigrants and offensive characterizations of Latinos. The failure of the paper of record to take these groups to task for their blatant racism shows how far to the right the public discourse on immigration has shifted.

Julie Hollar, managing editor of Extra! Magazine at Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, calls the Times’ coverage “completely irresponsible” in an interview with Campus Progress. “If media are going to use these groups as sources, the public has a right to be informed, every time they're quoted, about their racism,” she says.
“The Times probably saw this as a ‘balanced’ way of being critical of Tanton without invoking the ire of the right,” Hollar says. “The debate always tends to boil down to questions about ‘enforcement’ or ‘amnesty,’ and the sources tend to be anti-immigration groups like [the Center for Immigration Studies]versus business groups. What gets lost is the voices of immigrant rights groups and, most importantly, immigrants themselves—which also goes a long way to explaining the ease with which the right has succeeded in dehumanizing and demonizing immigrants in this country.”
Throughout the article, staff members of the three groups—the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), NumbersUSA, and the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS)—repeatedly distance themselves from Dr. Tanton’s overtly racist statements.
“The fear was that one ugly person could tar the larger movement, and sadly, ironically, it turned out that person was John Tanton,” former FAIR deputy director Patrick Burns was quoted as saying.

• But Tanton isn’t the only one who spouted views that might tar the movement. The groups’ current work all reflects racism not far from Tanton’s. Some examples include:
• Mark Krikorian, current executive director of CIS, wrote in the National Review last year that “Haiti’s so screwed up because it wasn’t colonized long enough.”
• CIS issued a 2008 study that bizarrely blame immigrants for global warming.  
• Former FAIR President Dan Stein in 1997 said, “Immigrants don't come all church-loving, freedom-loving, God-fearing … Many of them hate America, hate everything that the United States stands for. Talk to some of these Central Americans."
• In another National Review post Krikorian insinuated that there was a tie between the collapse of Washington Mutual bank in 2008 and their recognition as a top employer for Latinos.

These are not reasonable statements made by reasonable organizations. But a reader would not get that sense from the New York Times profile. It mentions the Southern Poverty Law Center’s designation of FAIR as a hate group (SPLC also dubbed Tanton’s “journal” The Social Contract a hate group) in passing and includes brief quotes from the pro-immigrant organizations America’s Voice and the Center for New Community, but has almost nothing critical to say about Tanton’s three organizations as they exist today.
Instead, staffers are repeatedly given the space to distance the organizations’ contemporary actions from the racism of their creator.
Roger Conner, FAIR’s first director, is quoted as saying, “My biggest regret is I looked at what he was doing, rolled my eyes and said, ‘That’s John.’ ”
The reader gets the sense that crass, overt racism is something FAIR, CIS, and NumbersUSA have put behind them—now, they rationally argue for increased restriction on immigration simply because they believe it to be a sensible policy solution.
This is because these organizations are often seen as credible sources on immigration rather than extremists, a fact reflected in their constant . Here are a couple of recent examples of the group’s citation by legitimate news sources:

• Earlier this month, for example, in an article in the Chicago Tribune about the children of immigrants whose lives are devastated by the deportation of a parent, a Center for Immigration Studies staff member is repeatedly quoted while his organization is described as one that simply “advocates tougher immigration controls.”
• On Friday, the Christian Science Monitor quoted CIS’s Krikorian in an article about Georgia’s recent anti-immigrant, SB1070-like bill, describing his organization as “a nonpartisan Washington think tank that highlights the consequences of legal and illegal immigration.”
• Last month, the New York Times quoted Krikorian for an article on “maternity tourists” from China, also simply referring to CIS as a group that “advocates tougher immigration controls.”

Tanton is an incredibly influential force in the national immigration debate who has repeatedly expressed openly racist sentiments in reference to immigrants, and his New York Times profileexposes this to the world. But the organizations he founded should not be let off the hook. Their racist rhetoric is usually a bit less crass than Tanton’s, but they're still incredibly bigoted."

Micah Uetricht is a staff writer with Campus Progress. You can follow him on Twitter @micahuetricht.
http://campusprogress.org/articles/ny_times_lets_racist_groups_distance_themselves_from_racist_founder1/