Since super typhoon Haiyan touched down in the Philippines a month ago, millions of Filipinos have been displaced from their homes, including tens of thousands now living temporarily in Manila with no physical homes to return to. The unprecedented damage to infrastructure and serious loss of life has caused some U.S. lawmakers to take up the cause of providing Temporary Protected Status to Filipino nationals living the U.S. who may otherwise be forced to return home.
Topics: Immigration Reform Updates, Personal and Family Visas, Immigration Blog
With the legislative calendar days in the single digits for 2013, activists and politicians are positioning themselves for getting immigration done in 2014.
ellenm1 on flickr and reproduced under Creative Commons 2.0
Topics: Immigration Reform Updates, Work-Based Visas, Immigration Blog
With the clock ticking on the legislative year the chance for comprehensive immigration reform to be passed looks dim.
Early in 2013, the Illinois became one of the first U.S. states to pass legislation that would permit undocumented immigrant residents to obtain driver’s licenses. Eleven months later, the state is officially ready to start issuing new Temporary Visitor Driver’s Licenses (example at left) to undocumented immigrants in order to improve the lives and safety of everyone on Illinois roads.
Topics: Deferred Action (DACA) Updates, Immigration Reform Updates, Personal and Family Visas, Immigration Blog
When the dust settles on comprehensive immigration reform and it becomes the law of the land, people might look back on this week as one of the most significant.
Today, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) finally made a formal announcement regarding the Senate immigration reform bill that passed in June.
“The idea that we’re going to take up a 1,300 page bill that no one ever read, which is what the Senate did, is never going to happen in the House, and frankly I’ll make clear that we have no intention of ever going to conference on the Senate bill,” he told reporters in a press conference this afternoon.
Many immigration reform advocates have seen a conference between the House and Senate as a viable solution to the gridlock in the House. A conference would mean that House members would have the opportunity to negotiate with the Senate and come up with a new bipartisan plan that utilizes the most agreeable parts (in their eyes) of the Senate proposal. Boehner’s rejection of a conference on the Senate bill means that any immigration reform legislation that passes will be solely authored by House members.
Boehner’s announcement disappointed and confused many of his constituents, including GOP Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, who released a statement this afternoon in response to Boehner’s remarks:
“I remain steadfast in the fact that the House needs to take up immigration reform. I urge Speaker Boehner to remain open to any options that allow us to solve this crucial issue. It has been said time and time again that our immigration system is broken, and we must come together to find a sensible solution to fix it. I continue to work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle on a bill that secures our border, respects the rule of law, strengthens our economy, modernizes the visa system, and addresses the millions of undocumented immigrants in a way that is both reasonable and humane.”
Diaz-Balart has a long history of working on bipartisan immigration reform efforts, though he has not been optimistic recently about the outlook for reform in 2013. As a conservative representative from a heavily Latino district, his opinion on immigration carries a lot of weight within the Republican party.
Another interesting development around Boehner’s announcement was the fact that this morning, he was interviewed on camera by two young DREAMers while eating at a local diner. The video’s popularity exploded within hours, in particular because in the video Boehner assures the young women (one of whom has a father that was recently deported to Mexico) “I’m trying to find some way to get this thing [immigration reform] done. It’s not going to be an easy path forward, but I’ve made it clear since the day after the election that it’s time to get this done.” Just a few hours later, he would announce publicly that he wasn’t going to consider one of the most viable paths to passing real immigration reform.
This Veteran’s Day, we express our gratitude towards all of those who have served in the United States military, especially those who have sacrificed their lives on behalf of the country. Not everyone realizes that many of our nation’s veterans are U.S. immigrants, and they have played crucial roles in our nation’s military efforts since the Declaration of Independence. As we are a nation of immigrants, it should come as no surprise that immigrants and the U.S. military have depended on each other since this country was founded.
Topics: Immigration Reform Updates, Personal and Family Visas, Immigration Blog
Yesterday afternoon, the office of U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) released a statement disavowing any support or relationship with DREAMer and immigrant activist organizations NIYA (National Immigrant Youth Alliance) and DREAMActivist.org after one of their own was arrested in Gutierrez’ office. Up until recently, Gutierrez was tangentially involved with these DREAMer activist organizations in an attempt to help a group known as the “DREAM 30.” Just a few weeks ago, these thirty or so undocumented DREAMers voluntarily walked back into Mexico and tried to re-enter to request asylum at the U.S. border. Not surprisingly, all were detained immediately.
The DREAM 30 stated their goal in leaving and attempting to re-enter the U.S. was to bring awareness to the plight of undocumented immigrants in the United States, but also to finally obtain their own legitimate status in the U.S. through a lesser-known route: asylum. When granted, asylum protects immigrants in extremely dangerous circumstances from having to return to their country of origin, even if they don’t have legal status. As we outlined in a recent post, asylum has a specific set of restrictions and can be very difficult to obtain. The odds were very slim that most of the DREAM 30 would get it.
As it currently stands, 21 members of the DREAM 30 have been released, one was deported, and eight are still in detention and waiting for a decision. Several members of the DREAM 30 were eligible for deferred action but chose not to apply, in some cases as another act of protest. Many of them still have legal immigration issues to be sorted out, but it seems that most fared far better than current U.S. immigration policy would predict. Self-deportation as a form of protest is an extremely risky (and controversial) move that many prominent pro-immigrant groups have already declared detrimental to the immigration reform cause.
The ideologies of the DREAM 30, NIYA, and DREAMActivist.org, and Rep. Gutierrez collided yesterday after a member of the DREAM 30 staged a protest in his office by demanding the congressman obtain pardons from President Obama for all the remaining members still in detention, not a small request by any measure. Gutierrez’s office summarized the incident on his Facebook page yesterday:
“This afternoon, representatives of the National Immigrant Youth Alliance (NIYA), DREAMActivist.org, and the #DREAM30 sat-in at the office of Congressman Luis V. Gutierrez (D-IL) in Washington, D.C. One activist, who was recently released from detention in El Paso, Texas at the request of Congressman Gutiérrez, was removed from the office of Congressman Gutiérrez for refusing to leave until the Congressman spoke personally with President Obama and secured the release of other detainees. The activists were asked to leave by U.S. Capitol Police. Two activists left the office. A third refused and was escorted out by U.S. Capitol Police.“
Members of DREAMActivist.org and NIYA have also boasted publicly on social media that they secretly recorded Gutierrez in private meetings with parents of the DREAM 30 detainees, where they allegedly caught him making disparaging remarks about their leaders, and have continued on a smear campaign throughout the day claiming Gutierrez is a traitor to the cause. This highlights a somewhat surprising division among immigration allies, since most will agree no other member of Congress has so consistently, publicly, and emphatically been in support of comprehensive immigration reform as Rep. Gutierrez.
Over the past few months, NIYA and DREAMActivist.org have already garnered a reputation for being abrasive and disrespectful, especially online, often resorting to name-calling and harassment. Their supporters have called Gutierrez a phony and a liar, claiming he is an immigration activist for fame and recognition. It’s a bold claim to make, especially after the Congressman was arrested in an immigration reform protest just a month ago and has a longstanding reputation of being one of immigration reform’s strongest allies. It’s interesting to note that another member of the DREAM 30 was arrested in Rep. Ruben Hinojosa’s (D-TX) office that same day for the same reason, and he has escaped scrutiny from these groups. Being the more famous of the two congressmen, it makes sense to choose Gutierrez as a target if their goal was to get the most media attention.
Blaming Gutierrez for not obtaining pardons for the DREAM 30 (who all knew they were going to get arrested before they crossed the border) makes the entire movement look bad and doesn’t put DREAMers in a flattering light. Their demands were extreme and extremely misguided, and most likely based on poor legal advice and misinterpretation of current U.S. immigration laws.
Nobody wins when activist groups viciously attack each other just for the chance to prove one single faction is “the most right.” (Nobody wins except maybe in this case… the House Republicans and anti-immigrant groups.) Gutierrez himself will admit recent immigration reform proposals are not perfect, not even close, and nobody will get everything they want in one single piece of immigration legislation. If these groups are not interested in working with other viewpoints to get a comprehensive bill passed, they should be at least be able to admit they are in fact not true advocates of immigration reform and their mission is something else entirely.
