News
Students in California Fight Back Tuition Hikes
Published November 20, 2009 @ 05:07PM PT
In response to the failed anti-immigrant tea parties last week, more than 60,000 people joined the call for immigration reform with Rep. Luis Gutierrez this past Wednesday. The momentum is clearly on the side for reforming America's broken immigration system.
Rep. Gutierrez reiterated his support for immigrant youth and even though he has yet to co-sponsor the DREAM Act, he clarified that his immigration reform bill would strengthen the DREAM Act, making it quicker and easier for undocumented students to legalize their status.
In the long run, undocumented youth don't just need legalization; all American students need access to affordable and quality public education. And that is why student activists across California occupied their schools this week to present a list of demands in response to the rising costs of public education, specifically the 32% tuition hike approved by the UC Regents.
AT UCLA, cops tasered and hit students with batons. The actions were repeated at Wheeler Hall in UC Berkeley. Reportedly, well over a hundred students have been arrested for protesting.
The majority of the students occupying halls at UC Berkeley, UCLA and UC Santa Cruz are not undocumented, but providing a safe environment and accesss for undocumented students and workers is also high on the agenda.
Massachusetts Looks to Revive Instate-Tuition
Published November 19, 2009 @ 12:07PM PT
Governor Deval Patrick is looking at another push to grant in-state tuition to undocumented students in Massachusetts as per the recommendations of a year-long study conducted on how to improve immigrant integration in Massachusetts.
In light of federal inaction on immigration, 11 states with growing immigrant populations have already approved in-state tuition for undocumented students who attend high school in those states.
More than 910,000 immigrants live in Massachusetts, which is 14 percent of the population, and the numbers are increasing. 1 in 5 immigrants—well below the national average—are currently residing in the state without legal status.
Anti-immigrant advocates are furious, given their recent string of dismal losses. They are screaming about the supposed additional tax-burden. In these ignorant spew of copy-paste words, ‘the taxpayer’ is constructed as some mono-lithic, angry, usually white American citizen shouldering the burden of free health care, welfare and now education for those damn ‘illegal aliens.’
Efforts to Exclude Abortion From HCR Trumps Concern About Undocumented
Published November 07, 2009 @ 07:20PM PT
By a vote of 220-215, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 3962 (Affordable Health Care for America Act) with an anti-abortion amendment rather than adopting any anti-immigrant amendments or tort reforms from the GOP.
For some conservative Democrats and the GOP--appropriately identified by Representative Edward Markey as Grandstand Oppose Pretend party--veterans, working poor, women and undocumented immigrants are not a priority for health-care but the unborn have to be protected. Apparently, a fetus is the only category that cannot pull itself up by its bootstraps.
Representative Bart Stupak (D-MI) offered an anti-abortion amendment to the House health care bill last night as a compromise when 40 anti-abortion Democrats threatened to vote against the bill. According to Rep. Jan Schakowsky (IL-9), the amendment makes little sense since it prevents women who pay with their own money from getting a plan that covers reproductive care. For now, segments of the GOP and Bluedog Democrats have replaced their hatred of immigrants with their contempt of women and the right to choose. The amendment passed 240-194 with the help of 64 Democrats, making it next to impossible for low-income women who need abortion to afford health care in the United States.
Last month, Representative Luis Gutierrez (IL-4) blasted President Barack Obama for caving in to Joe 'You Lie' Wilson's inappropriate screams, stating that not only would excluding undocumented immigrants from buying insurance on exchange put the brunt of health care costs on taxpayers, but undocumented immigrants who currently had private insurance could possibly lose coverage due to rising costs of private health insurance.
Senate Gets Rid of Vitter-Bennett Amendment
Published November 06, 2009 @ 02:59PM PT
Good news for all pro-immigant rights advocates. The Senate voted 60-39 and refused to wreck the census, getting rid of the Vitter-Bennett amendment that would have discouraged undocumented immigrants from participating in the 2010 Census and wasted millions in redoing forms as well as trainings. Senator McCain missed the vote and given he also missed the DREAM Act floor vote two years ago, it doesn't bode well for the once-strong supporter of immigrant rights.
Today is the 23 year anniversary of the landmark immigration reform bill signed by President Reagan in 1986, which gave amnesty to 2.7 million immigrants. The Vitter-Bennet amendment, much like most GOP plans, threatened to wreck the inclusive nature of the Census while doing nothing of substance to rectify the issue of 11.8 million undocumented immigrants living and working in this country.
(Video Credit: SayItVisually)
Will Pelosi Cave to Anti-Immigrant Sentiments on HCR?
Published November 06, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus is currently tussling with both the Speaker of the House and the President for a health care bill that includes undocumented immigrants. Currently, the House bill (H.R. 3962) has no bar against undocumented immigrants and toughening the health care bill with verification measures may lead to thousands of immigrants losing their access to private health insurance.
The question is simple: Do you want undocumented immigrants in your overburdened emergency rooms on 'taxpayer dollars' or do you want them buying health insurance to pay for their own medical bills? Never mind the fact that the undocumented pay taxes to mitigate the costs of receiving any so-called 'free health care' and are the least likely to use emergency health facilities.
Dragging undocumented immigrants into the health-care debate for political purposes is a way to derail health care reform without offering any real solutions for the estimated 11.8 million out-of-status immigrants in this country. Excluding undocumented from participating in public exchange while increasing costs of private premium health insurance due to competition threatens a loss of coverage for even those who have private health insurance. It goes without saying that including everyone in the marketplace of health insurance is far more economical than excluding given more people would carry the burden and hence, lower the costs of health care.
Lets see how long it takes House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to ignore facts in the face of right-wing paranoia without putting forth a solution to fixing a failing system that prevents so many immigrants from adjusting their status to get health care.
Photo Credit: Neil Parekh/SEIU Healthcare 775NW / CC
What the Election Means for Immigration Reform
Published November 04, 2009 @ 11:24AM PT
While the GOP won gubernatorial elections in the states of New Jersey and Virginia, there was no second Republican wet-dream 'Contract with America.' Voters seemed mostly uninspired and voted against incumbents for the most part.
The gubernatorial elections do not bring good news for immigration reforms in those states. Virginia is among the top 10 states with new residents. The winner Bob McDonell is the grandson of an Irish immigrant but wants to extend 287g across the state and enable state troopers to enforce immigration laws.
In New Jersey, passing a much-needed instate-tuition bill for undocumented students as part of the recommendations of the Corzine blue ribbon commission is about to get harder with the election of Chris Christie since he opposes the legislation. But both Governor Corzine and Christie oppose granting driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants. They also expressed reservations for local enforcement of federal immigration laws and looked to federal government for direction on immigration.
After all, the votes for immigration reform won't come from Governors. Democrats won the two House seats up for grabs, wrestling a little more power from the bluedogs and making immigration reform a bit easier in the House of Representatives.
New Immigration Legislation Resuscitates More Than Surviving Spouses
Published November 02, 2009 @ 08:00AM PT
Last month, I reported the elimination of the widow penalty through H.R.2892. But the 2010 Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act goes a step further in allowing the surviving beneficiaries of all approved family and employment-based petitions to be protected as "survivors" and allow them to continue their applications for adjustment of status despite the death of the original petitioner.
This is a crucial fix in immigration law because due to long immigration waits, original petitioners sometimes pass away, leaving entire families in perpetual limbo. Additionally, under the new law, if the principle beneficiary passes away while the petition is pending, the spouse and derivative beneficiaries can still immigrate. If the family is abroad, then they can request a reinstatement of the visa petition on "humanitarian" grounds.
Specifically, these are the categories affected by the new legislation:
(A) the beneficiary of a pending or approved petition for classification as an immediate relative (as described in section 201(b)(2)(A)(i));
(B) the beneficiary of a pending or approved petition for classification under section 203 (a) or (d);
(C) a derivative beneficiary of a pending or approved petition for classification under section 203(b) (as described in section 203(d));
(D) the beneficiary of a pending or approved refugee/asylee relative petition under section 207 or 208;
(E) an alien admitted in `T' nonimmigrant status as described in section 101(a)(15)(T)(ii) or in `U' nonimmigrant status as described in section 101(a)(15)(U)(ii); or
(F) an asylee (as described in section 208(b)(3)).'.
President Obama is widely expected to sign the legislation soon. Actual interpretation of this bill and guidelines on how to claim relief under Sec. 568 will come from USCIS after passage of the bill.
(Photo Credit: WTL photos on Flickr)
