Politics

House Immigration Reform Caucus loses members, not affiliations with anti-immigrant groups

Written by Stephen Piggott

The House Immigration Reform Caucus (IRC) recently updated its website with a slick new interface. Along with the new website, the Caucus revealed its list of members following the 2010 midterm elections last November. The Caucus now boasts 65 members from a variety of states including Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and Steve King of Iowa, two of the most outspokenly anti-immigrant members of the House.

Founded in May 1999 by former Rep. Tom Tancredo, IRC members have introduced punitive anti-immigration legislation and played a key role in scuttling recent immigration reforms by dragging worthy proposals through a cesspool of nativism and xenophobia. The Caucus’ current chair, Brian Bilbray of California, is a former lobbyist for… Read more

New CAPS TV Ad in CA

Written by Imagine 2050 Editors

Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS) started a new TV ad campaign in the town of San Luis Obispo, California. CAPS previously ran ads in the town of Bakersfield, CA and plan to run ads in other California towns over the coming months.

Politics

Deportations, Foreclosures, and Medical Bills Greet Our Troops

Written by Jessica Acee

Press play below to listen:

In this edition of Imagine2050′s audio blog we explore what it really means to support our troops ten years into the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  We’ll hear about the Veterans Administration’s backlog of unpaid claims, the threat of foreclosure that many of our veterans face, and the added fear of deportation for our immigrant service men and women.

Politics

Cross-Post: ALIPAC takes on the Church of Latter-day Saints

Written by Imagine 2050 Editors

by Domenic Powell. Gratefully lifted from the NC Dream Team blog.

“I intend to work against the agenda of the LDS Church in Utah and across America as long as your church continues to try to aid and abet illegal aliens in violation of our existing federal laws.”

The message from Americans for Legal Immigration, or ALIPAC, is clear: the Mormon Church needs to get in line, or else. William Gheen, the President of ALIPAC, is mobilizing his supporters to take action against the Church—even to threaten its tax exempt status—over their stance on immigration. The quote above is an exerpt from a sample phone script sent to ALIPAC supporters to read

… Read more

Economy

Immigrant and refugee workers undercut by temp agency hiring

Written by Carlos Rich

Times are hard and a lot of Americans are having difficulty finding jobs.  Immigrants, refugees and other workers of color are having the hardest time.  With more states requiring that employers use E-Verify and Form I-9, some face discrimination in many places where they apply for work.

And the increasing prevalence of temp agencies is making matters worse.

Warehouse Workers for Justice reports that 70% of Chicagoland warehouses employ temps rather than direct hires. Many workers report that in suburban Will County, where many warehouses are located, it’s impossible to find work anywhere other than at a staffing agency.

New NPG Report

Written by Imagine 2050 Editors

Negative Population Growth (NPG) published a new report titled, “All in the Family: Preferences for Relatives Drive U.S. Immigration and Population Growth.” The report was authored by Jessica Vaughan of the anti-immigrant group Center for Immigration Studies (CIS).

Immigration

African American members of the House blast efforts to divide communities of color

Written by Charlotte Williams

Last week, the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary held a Subcommittee Hearing on Immigration Policy and Enforcement entitled, “Making Immigration Work for American Minorities.”  The panel of witnesses was stacked with anti-immigrant leaders.

However, their skewed reports on immigration were met with emotional rebuttals as members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) vehemently denounced the attempts of House Republicans and anti-immigrant spokespersons to drive wedges between African Americans, Blacks and Latinos.

Representative Emanuel Cleaver II, D-MO, responded in a statement,

“I am concerned by the Majority’s attempt to manufacture tension between the African American and immigrant communities. It seems as though they would like for our communities to think about

… Read more

Immigration

Fears over border violence used to scapegoat immigrants, obscure real issues

Written by Brian Schultz

Border violence, particularly that perpetrated by Mexican drug cartels, has become a major selling point for anti-immigrant groups. People have become genuinely afraid, and numerous organizations are reinforcing this fear by inundating their analysis with references to armed conflicts in the southwest.

Federation for American Immigration Reform, Center for Immigration Studies and NumbersUSA, among others, regularly bolster their xenophobic arguments with these cases.

Moreover, border violence has become a portal into the immigration debate for organizations that, by all rights, should have nothing to say about it. The NRA is quick to scapegoat immigrants whenever confronted with statistics on gun crime, and has produced fervent anti-immigrant rebuttals to the gun control legislation… Read more

Politics

Anti-Immigrant Leaders Testify for House Subcommittee

Written by Jill Garvey

Today, the House Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement will conduct a hearing entitled, “New Jobs in Recession and Recovery: Who Are Getting Them and Who Are Not.”

The majority GOP witnesses are Steven Camarota of  Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) and Greg Serbon of Indiana Federation for Immigration Reform and Enforcement (IFIRE). Both are anti-immigrant leaders tied to FAIR and white nationalist John Tanton.

It is troubling that Reps. Lamar Smith (R-TX), Elton Gallegly (R-CA) and Steve King (R-IA) – dubbed the “rabid anti-immigration trio of powerful GOP congressmen” by the NY Daily News – are continuing to call witnesses from the same small pool of controversial anti-immigrant… Read more

Politics

Arizona in Nebraska? Not Yet

Written by Guest Blogger

By Kristin Anderson Ostrom

On March 2, 2011, Nebraska’s debate on “illegal” immigration took a turn as the state’s Judiciary Committee questioned the sponsor of an Arizona-like bill (LB 48), Charlie Janssen of Fremont, Nebraska. Like Fremont’s law passed this summer, the “Illegal Immigration Enforcement Act” was written by Kris Kobach, an attorney with FAIR’s legal arm, the Immigration Reform Law Institute.

In June 2010, Fremont voters (57%) passed Ordinance No. 5165 in a special election. The law bans renting, harboring and employing “illegal aliens” within the city’s limits. The language of the law is essentially a copy of an ordinance that Kobach passed in Hazleton, Pennsylvania. Hazleton has… Read more