Check out the second guest post from Robert Gittelson – its a great reminder about where we are in the fight for comprehensive immigration reform (CIR)!
This has been somewhat of a frustrating and difficult week for both sides in the immigration debate. The anti’s have been sidetracked by the deranged and violent acts of one of their own, which has lead to an outpouring of blistering attacks against racism and extremism, tainting the anti coalition with guilt by association.
The pro CIR advocates have been frustrated by the continued delays on the part of the White House, in their promised meeting with legislators to begin crafting the CIR legislation, (which I heard was now re-scheduled for June 25th).
While I understand that tensions are high, and seem to be escalating, I counsel that everyone involved in this debate should take a deep breath, pause to get their bearings, and refocus on the task at hand.
It was an energizing (and exhausting) few days spent with over 800 advocates, activists and leaders in an unprecedented push for comprehensive immigration reform.
Between an amazing Town Hall, our takeover of Capitol Hill and the jam packed lineup of great speakers, the Summit proved that the Reform Immigration FOR America campaign is a force to be reckoned with. While not all the coverage of the campaign was positive (from both bloggers and the media), I think Jackie Mahendra at America’s Voice summarized nicely by saying:
One common thread between all of it was a feeling of great momentum and renewed energy to get reform done, and get it done soon.
The overall feeling coming out of the summit is just that: the urgency of the moment. With Harry Reid declaring that immigration reform will happen in 2009, the upcoming meeting with Obama and Members of Congress on June 17th and the unprecedented support from the labor, faith and African American communities, the momentum is certainly on our side.
The Summit was certainly a historic moment for many who have been doing pro-immigrant work for years on end, but I want to remind folks that this is just the BEGINNING of the campaign. We have a long, uphill battle facing us, but we know that this year is different than previous years. Deepak Bhargava sums this point up nicely:
Why is this different than the push for immigration reform in previous years? Not only has this campaign been built from the bottom up — over 44 local launches of the campaign took place across the country on Monday — but it is a uniquely diverse and strong collection of folks working for a cause that a majority of the American public supports. Everyone from Rahm Emanuel to Alan Greenspan to the Police Foundation have come out in support of comprehensive immigration reform. The labor movement and the immigrant rights movement are united. Opposition to reform is increasingly the lonely province of a small but vocal and powerful group of extremists whose messages becomes more and more hateful by the day. Now is the time. This is the year.
Yes, the RI4A Summit was a rousing success, but remember, this is when the work really begins.
To view more images from the RI4A summit click here.
Tomorrow Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) will hold his first hearing as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Refugees. The hearing is titled Comprehensive Immigration Reform in 2009, Can We Do It and How?”. The list of speakers is expansive – and promising.
The hearing will feature testimony from Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, Dr. Joel Hunter of the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, and SEIU’s Eliseo Medina, to name a few.
Is it me, or do these speakers resemble the broad-based coalition that is coming together to support immigration reform in 2009? We have Greenspan representing the economic and business interests, Hunter bringing the faith-based support to the table and Medina showing that the support of the labor unions is going strong.
Jackie from America’s Voice will be live-blogging the hearing, be sure to tune in at 2:00 pm and listen to what goes down. Check it out here.
The hearing is a sign that reform is really going to happen this year – this is a small step, but an extremely strong one. It shows that the momentum for reform is growing, and not just from pro-migrant advocates.
It will be instructive to see how both parties behave during next week’s Senate Judiciary Hearing, “Comprehensive Immigration Reform in 2009, Can We Do It and How?””
Tune into what the public- not the noisy Minuteman minority- really want. Weigh the economic benefits of legalizing twelve million underground workers and cracking down on bad-actor employers against the human and financial costs of deporting 12 million men, women, and children.
Not only is the hearing a great step forward, but the next day, on May 1st, hundreds of thousands of people will be taking it to the streets, showing the American public’s appetite for reform and their commitment to the issue. For more on the May Day marches, check out www.anewdayforimmigration.org.
Watch the video below to see Ali Noorani, of the National Immigration Forum, take on Lou Dobbs and Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.
Earlier today I mentioned that the Congressional Hispanic Caucus met with President Obama to urge him to address comprehensive immigration reform this year. The President expressed a continued commitment to reforming immigration and also noted that his administration will be looking for ways to relieve the damage done to communities by current immigration enforcement measures.
Congressman Luis Gutierrez, a champion of comprhensive immigration reform, released statement about the meeting:
“We came to the President today as allies and supporters, and in return he showed us that he remains committed to immigration reform that stabilizes our economy, secures our borders and keeps our families together. “The President showed the CHC that, although it is very early in his administration, he understands that for the immigrant community it’s the 11th hour, and there is no time to waste. The Latino community supported President Obama overwhelmingly in the election, and they remain energized not only by his victory but also by his message of support for comprehensive immigration reform. I believe that a plan is forthcoming, and that we will see real change this year.”
This is an extremely important step toward immigration reform happening this year and an energizing message for all of us who are pushing for it. It seems like the demand for reform is going to hit a critical mass in the near future, with so many different voices joining to call on the administration and Congress to address the issue.
FIRM’s parent organization, the Center for Community Change, also released a statement from our Executive Director, Deepak Bhargava. He had this to say about today’s meeting:
Today, we welcome President Obama’s pledge during the CHC meeting to start a national conversation on just and humane immigration reform. The Center looks forward to bringing the voices of those most affected to the conversation.
Our country, now more than ever, needs comprehensive immigration reform that gives the hard working men and women already here an earned path to citizenship, keeps families together and provides legal avenues for future workers to seek out opportunities here and join the struggle to strengthen our economy.
Its so important to remember that during this time of crisis in our country, we have to come together to solve then nation’s problems. Continuing the politics of divisiveness and exclusion will not foster the type of community solutions that we need. We need everyone’s contribution, both to the economy and to our communities, if we want to right the course of the nation.
It’s looking like today’s meeting is the first step to getting back on course.
Still, the notion that immigration can be finessed is a mirage. The problem will only get worse, and so will the politics. Obama, 47, a Democrat, would have to renege on his campaign promise to push a major immigration overhaul along the lines of the Kennedy-McCain measure in his first year.
The agriculture, food service and construction industries rely on immigrants. They are going through down times, but they’ll need more immigrants when they bounce back.
That’s true of the overall economy, says Tamar Jacoby, a scholar who favors an overhaul of the immigration system.
“Immigration reform may be harder in the middle of a recession, to make the case that we need more workers,” Jacoby says. “But the only way out of a recession is to grow out of it, and we need workers to do that.”
Even with the drop in the number of illegal immigrants – there are still an estimated 11.5 million in the country, or about 4 percent of the population – the social tensions are worsening. Highly publicized raids are disrupting communities and generating furious resentment among Hispanics.
Click here to read the full article. All signs are pointing to Comprehensive Immigration Reform hitting the floor THIS year. Communities, advocates, families and immigrants across the country will be ready to rally around legislation of Just and Humane reform.
Last week the Interfaith Immigration Coalition launched the “Prayer, Renewal and Action on Immigration” campaign, calling on faith and community leaders to hold vigils and pray for the protection of immigrants and their families and the moral courage of leaders in Washington to promote just and humane Immigration Reform.
Right now, we are witnessing a tremendous outpouring of support for immigration reform from faith and community leaders across the country. This past weekend, at least 30 of the first vigils were held – below is a roundup of media coverage from those events.
The tide is turning in the immigration debate. Folks are tired of the abusive tactics of the past 8 years and are demanding an immigration system that fits with our values, supports our communities and maintains family unity.
Yesterday, President Obama was a guest on “El Piolín por la manana” (on of the nation’s popular radio shows that boast an enormous Latin@ following). Obama and the First Lady were on his show several times during the campaign and yesterday he made the commitment to continue to have a regular presence from the Administration on the show.
During the interview, Obama pledged his support of the Latin@ and immigrant community and his continuing commitment to fixing our broken immigration system. You can read the full transcript after the jump, but here is a good highlight:
THE PRESIDENT: Well, as I’ve said every time I’ve been on the show, Piolín, we’re going to make sure that we begin the process of dealing with the immigration system that’s broken. We’re going to start by really trying to work on how to improve the current system so that people who want to be naturalized, who want to become citizens, like you did, that they are able to do it; that it’s cheaper, that it’s faster, that they have an easier time in terms of sponsoring family members.
And then we’ve got to have comprehensive immigration reform. Now, you know, we need to get started working on it now. It’s going to take some time to move that forward, but I’m very committed to making it happen. And we’re going to be convening leadership on this issue so that we can start getting that legislation drawn up over the next several months.
As I have mentioned before, without Comprehensive Immigration Reform, Congress will continue to battle out the immigration issue with every bill that hits the floor. We’ve seen this recently with the SCHIP battle and the Stimulus bill – and it won’t stop soon, unless Comprehensive Reform is passed. Simon Rosenberg, from NDN just posted about this on the organization’s blog – and announced a Forum on the topic this Thursday, Feb. 19th.
…the proxy wars in Congress and in the states will continue. There is simply no way to duck this one, wish it away. Inaction is not an option any longer. By the fall, the pressure on lawmakers and the President to address a very visible national problem, and the fatigue of battling this out in proxy war after proxy war, will create a climate in which progress on this tough issue I think will be more than possible.
To talk more about this compelling national challenge, come join NDN next Thursday, February 19, for a forum, Making the Case: Why Congress Should Pass Immigration Reform This Year. For those not in DC, we will be Web casting it live and recording it for future review. Stay tuned to this blog for more information about both.
I will be tuning into the webcast this Thursday and others should join in too. This is a top tier issue for our current Congress and we must continue to push for reform at the Federal level. Without it, we will be fighting too many of these proxy wars and will see law makers bogged down in this issue time and time again.
While there are lots of petitions, sign-on letters and actions that are in the works to call for immigration reform, I wanted to post about this, because anyone can participate. Just write your letter and send it in.
When? February 12, 2009.
Why? Allow those undocumented Immigrants to surface and assimilate into this great melting pot which will allow us an economic recovery by infusing cash spending into our struggling economy.
What Date? February 12, 2009 is the Bi-Centennial Birth date of Abraham Lincoln.
Who? All people of all race, creed, color or religion that believe in Immigration Reform or strengthening our economy through the centuries old concept of allowing low skilled labor to flourish and the expansion of minds through educating all youths (undocumented or not). Everyone can send a letter to the President.
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From Deepak Bhargava, Executive Director of the Center for Community Change. Originally posted at the Huffington Post. Finally, the country seems serious about reforming health care. But with discussions about a public option, cost control and competition raging, one aspect of achieving true universal coverage is being left out: what to do about immigrant […]
Today, amid a mixed bag of news from Congress and the administration, an indpendent Council on Foreign Relations panel – co-chaired by former Florida governor Jeb Bush (R) and former Clinton White House chief of staff Thomas F. “Mack” McLarty III – publicly called for comprehensive immigration reform. “The stakes are too high to fail […]
Senator Sessions has introduced an amendment to the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Act of 2010 that would make E-Verify mandatory for all federal contractors. If implemented, it would affect almost 4 million workers. The amendment would: Make the notoriously flawed E-verify program permanent. Require all federal contractors and subcontractors to […]
Another guest post from Robert Gittelson: Much has been made recently of the statements recently made by Senator Chuck Schumer at the Migration Policy Institute, in which he called for a more honest dialogue in our national debate on immigration reform. The Washington Examiner made the following observations about Senator Schumer’s speech: “Illegal i […]
The Carnegie Corporation ran this great ad in Saturday’s New York Times. This is the 4th year in a row the organization has run an ad celebrating the contributions of immigrants on the 4th of July. The ad reads: Andrew Carnegie, who founded Carnegie Corporation of New York in 1911, was an immigrant from Scotland. We at [...]
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As I have mentioned before, without Comprehensive Immigration Reform, Congress will continue to battle out the immigration issue with every bill that hits the floor. We’ve seen this recently with the SCHIP battle and the Stimulus bill – and it won’t stop soon, unless Comprehensive Reform is passed. Simon Rosenberg, from
