Alabama’s Shame
From the New York Times:
The law went into effect over the weekend, after being largely upheld by a federal district judge. Volunteers on an immigrant-rights group’s hot line said that since then they have received more than 1,000 calls from pregnant women afraid to go to the hospital, crime victims afraid to go the police, parents afraid to send their children to school.
School superintendents and principals across the state confirm that attendance of Hispanic children has dropped noticeably since the word went out that school officials are now required to check the immigration status of newly enrolled students and their parents.
That rule is part of the law’s sweeping attempt to curtail the rights and complicate the lives of people without papers, making them unable to enter contracts, find jobs, rent homes or access government services. In other words, to be isolated, unemployable, poor, defenseless and uneducated.
The Nation's Cruelest Immigration Law
From The New York Times:
The Alabama Legislature opened its session on March 1 on a note of humility and compassion. In the Senate, a Christian pastor asked God to grant members “wisdom and discernment” to do what is right. “Not what’s right in their own eyes,” he said, “but what’s right according to your word.” Soon after, both houses passed, and the governor signed, the country’s cruelest, most unforgiving immigration law.
The law, which takes effect Sept. 1, is so inhumane that four Alabama church leaders — an Episcopal bishop, a Methodist bishop and a Roman Catholic archbishop and bishop — have sued to block it, saying it criminalizes acts of Christian compassion. It is a sweeping attempt to terrorize undocumented immigrants in every aspect of their lives, and to make potential criminals of anyone who may work or live with them or show them kindness.
It effectively makes it a crime to be an undocumented immigrant in Alabama, by criminalizing working, renting a home and failing to comply with federal registration laws that are largely obsolete. It nullifies any contracts when one party is an undocumented immigrant. It requires the police to check the papers of people they suspect to be here illegally.
The new regime does not spare American citizens. Businesses that knowingly employ illegal immigrants will lose their licenses. Public school officials will be required to determine students’ immigration status and report back to the state. Anyone knowingly “concealing, harboring or shielding” an illegal immigrant could be charged with a crime, say for renting someone an apartment or driving her to church or the doctor.
For undocumented immigrants, 1 barrier to college falls
From the Chicago Tribune:
Gov. Pat Quinn on Monday signed a measure into law creating a privately funded scholarship program for documented and undocumented immigrants, a move supporters hailed as a civil rights victory as other states have recently moved in the other direction on immigration.
The Illinois DREAM Act creates a nine-member commission that will oversee the scholarship fund, which is aimed at removing one of the biggest barriers to higher education for immigrants: cost.
“It is a special day, a historic day, a landmark day where we in Illinois, the Land of Lincoln … we say to all people of our country and our state, we want everybody in, and nobody left out,” Quinn said during a bill-signing ceremony in the Pilsen neighborhood.
The measure narrowly passed the House and easily passed the Senate. Some opponents said they worried such a law would encourage illegal immigration to Illinois, while others said they were reflecting voters’ opinions back in their districts.
Foreign students a boon for Northwest Arkansas
From the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette:
FAYETTEVILLE — International students at the University of Arkansas account for about one-third of the $75.1 million economic impact of foreign scholars statewide, according to a November report by a nonprofit that focuses on international education.
Those students contributed about $25.4 million to Northwest Arkansas’ economy last year, according to the International Institute on Education. Nationally, foreign students contributed nearly $19 billion to the economy, the report said.
The economic-impact study accounts only for direct spending on tuition, living expenses and dependent expenses and subtracts support from U.S. sources, such as scholarships. The economic analysis was performed by NAFSA: Association of International Educators, using the institute’s data.
“When students come over here, they will spend so much money,” said Adnan Al-Rubaye of Iraq, who is pursuing a doctorate in cell and molecular biology. He has more than two years left to study before earning his degree, then plans to return to Iraq.
Al-Rubaye is among 1,156 international students at the Fayetteville campus, about 5.4 percent of the 21,406 student population in fall 2010.
Birthright Citizenship Looms as Next Immigration Battle
From The New York Times:
The next big immigration battle centers on illegal immigrants’ offspring, who are granted automatic citizenship like all other babies born on American soil. Arguing for an end to the policy, which is rooted in the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, immigration hard-liners describe a wave of migrants like Ms. Vasquez stepping across the border in the advanced stages of pregnancy to have what are dismissively called “anchor babies.”
The reality at this stretch of the border is more complex, with hospitals reporting some immigrants arriving to give birth in the United States but many of them frequent border crossers with valid visas who have crossed the border legally to take advantage of better medical care. Some are even attracted by an electronic billboard on the Mexican side that advertises the services of an American doctor and says bluntly, “Do you want to have your baby in the U.S.?”
Bleak prospects for comprehensive immigration reform in near future
From The Hill:
Just days after Congress killed the DREAM Act, voices on all sides of the immigration reform debate say it’s unlikely there will be much movement on the issue during the next two years.
With Republicans poised to assume House control in January, immigrant-rights advocates see scant chance legislation to grant illegal immigrants any kind of foothold in the U.S. could move through the lower chamber.
From the Los Angeles Times:
Immigration overhaul effort seems dead
When Republican lawmakers take over the House and gain strength in the Senate after the new year, a decadelong drive to overhaul the immigration system and legalize some of the estimated 11 million undocumented migrants seems all but certain to come to a halt.
The DREAM Act, a bill that would have put some undocumented immigrants who arrived in this country before they were 16 on a path to citizenship, failed to pass the Senate in part because Republicans are in full anti-immigrant mode. But it also failed because not one American leader urged us to seriously consider what it means to be American in the 21st century.
Some readers celebrate demise of DREAM act
When the DREAM Act died last week, some people treated it as a cause for celebration.
I know this because they sent me letters and e-mail. They were happy that the hardworking undocumented sons and daughters of illegal border crossers had been denied the right to become citizens of their adopted country.
Senate Dems Put DREAM Act Passage on Hold After House Passage
From The Hill:
Senate Democrats voted Thursday to postpone consideration of the DREAM Act, giving themselves a chance to take up a House-passed version of the bill after this week.
The bill is popular among Hispanic voters who helped Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) win reelection.
Reid promised voters shortly before Election Day that the Senate would consider the DREAM Act in the lame-duck session whether he won or lost.
Reid scheduled a vote to proceed to it Thursday but then switched course after the House passed a version of the bill Wednesday night. The Senate voted 59 to 40 to table a motion to take up the Senate version of the bill.
