With the Senate passing its version of health care reform in the wee hours of Christmas Eve, many immigrant advocates are waiting with bated breath for the White House to turn its attention to immigration in 2010.
In Arizona, which has been at the forefront of hard-line immigration initiatives, news of a bill that would allow the legalization of millions of undocumented workers brought some relief but also questions about the likely fate of those who’ve been swept up in the state’s law enforcement dragnet.
Saying “the time for waiting is over,” Rep. Luis Gutierrez announced his comprehensive immigration reform bill, “the product of months of collaboration with civil rights advocates, labor organizations, and members of Congress.”
Homeland Security Sec. Janet Napolitano renewed the Obama administration’s promise that it will deal with immigration reform early next year, political calculations in an election year notwithstanding.
On the day that President Barack Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway, pro-immigration activists in New York were ready to remind him of what they consider a human rights crisis in the United States: the condition in which thousands of immigrants are detained throughout the nation.
“A clear majority of the American public favors legalization as the best approach to the current population of unauthorized migrants,” according to a new book on immigration on both sides of the North Atlantic.
New York Democratic representatives Yvette Clarke, Charles Rangel and Anthony Weiner came out this week in support of comprehensive immigration reform during a Thanksgiving event that also recognized immigrants’ heritage and contributions to the city.
Activists gathered Wednesday night at house parties across the country in a day of action for comprehensive immigration reform organized by the Reform Immigration for America campaign.
Organizations working for comprehensive immigration reform welcomed Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s statement on Friday that Congress needs to move forward with an immigration overhaul early in 2010.
The U.S. Supreme Court wants the Obama administration to offer its opinion on state immigration laws, an issue that the White House has largely tried to avoid. The high court asked the White House on Monday for an opinion in a U.S. Chamber of Commerce challenge to an Arizona law that punishes businesses for hiring undocumented immigrants.
The Chamber of Commerce, supported by groups ranging from the American Civil Liberties Union to the Arizona Farm Bureau Federation, filed suit against a law Arizona passed in 2007 that requires employers to use an employee verification system and penalizes those who knowingly hire people without proper documentation. A Supreme Court ruling on the Arizona law could affect other states that have taken the issue into their own hands in response to what many see as federal inaction on immigration reform.
Michael Doyle, of McClatchy Newspapers, reported the Chamber’s attorney Carter Phillips wrote in a legal brief: “This case involves a question of exceptional national importance: whether state legislatures and municipal governments may override Congress’ judgment concerning United States immigration policy.”