Supreme Court won't revive Alabama immigration law

The Supreme Court has voted on the Alabama law and rejected it.  - - Donna Poisl

By David G. Savage, Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON— The Supreme Court made it clear Monday that enforcing immigration laws was reserved for the federal government, not the states.

By an 8-1 vote, the justices rejected a request from Alabama to revive part of a 2011 law designed to drive out illegal immigrants. That year saw a wave of new laws in Republican-controlled states where lawmakers decried federal inaction. Alabama's was deemed the toughest.

State officials said that if federal authorities were not going to arrest illegal immigrants, their police would take on the task.
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Dear Colleagues and Friends,

thinkimmigration

from Ben Johnson, Mary Giovagnoli & Wendy Feliz

What do you think of the Senate bill's exclusion of 11 million immigrants from healthcare?  Will the new "W" visa for lesser-skilled workers prevent future flows of undocumented workers? Should the bill provide noncitizens better access to their A-files? How are you feeling about the rhetoric being used so far in this debate?

In order to promote a robust conversation on these issues and more, the Immigration Policy Center at the American Immigration Council has launched an online space for you to engage with other advocates, academics, attorneys and impacted individuals who are discussing the policies laid out in the bill. Visit ThinkImmigration.org and join one (or more) of the conversations.

Help us define and develop the policies that will create a 21st century immigration system that best serves our nation’s interests? Visit ThinkImmigration.org.

We look forward to reading your thoughts!
Ben Johnson, Mary Giovagnoli & Wendy Feliz

English learners get too little aid, suit says

Students are entitled to extra help learning English but many of them are not getting it. Obviously they will suffer in school if they don't know the language.   - - Donna Poisl

Jill Tucker

California schools are required to help English learners master the language - and they get federal and state money to do so - but more than 20,000 students aren't getting the help they need, according to a statewide lawsuit filed Wednesday.

The legal challenge filed by civil rights groups alleges that state education officials have failed to investigate and fix the lack of English language services in 251 school districts.

Each year, state schools are required to report how many English learners they have and what programs they provide students to help them learn the language.
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National Jewish Call Discusses Immigration Reform

from HIAS/JTA Weekly Briefing

On April 18th, We Were Strangers, Too: The Jewish Campaign for Immigration Reform (WWS2) hosted a national conference call with over 90 participants from across the country to discuss the Senate immigration reform bill S. 744, The Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act, introduced on April 17, 2013.

The call featured policy experts from HIAS, Center for American Progress, and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs who discussed specific provisions of the bill, how the policies would affect our communities, and next steps moving forward. For more information and to listen to a recording of the call, please visit the WWS2 website.

The Senate Judiciary Committee also recently held a series of hearings to further discuss the bill. Learn more.

Senators aiming for 70 votes on immigration bill

If the Senate gets 70% "yes" vote, we must hope the House at least gets a majority.    - - Donna Poisl

by Alan Gomez, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON -- Two senators working on a sweeping immigration bill said it's not a question of whether it would pass the Senate, but by how much.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., members of the so-called Gang of Eight that crafted the immigration plan, said they believed the bill could reach 70 votes in the Senate, sending a message to the House of Representatives of the bill's overwhelming support.

"We're looking not to get 61 votes -- obviously that's the minimum. I'd like to get ... a majority on both sides," Schumer said during a breakfast Thursday hosted by The Christian Science Monitor.

"I think that's very doable," McCain added.
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HIAS to Launch Report on LGBTI Protection Concerns for Urban Refugees

from HIAS

Please join HIAS in New York on May 6th and in Washington, DC on May 7th for discussions on HIAS' new report, "Invisible in the City." Written for HIAS by Yiftach Milo, an expert in forced migration, this groundbreaking report discusses the dangers faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex refugees living in Ecuador, Ghana, Israel, and Kenya and provides a comprehensive guide and key recommendations for the treatment of LGBTI refugees everywhere.

Learn more and RSVP.

What do you think of the Senate's immigration proposal?

think immigration

from Ben Johnson, Mary Giovagnoli & Wendy Feliz

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

Today's Washington Post warns the Senate against setting up arbitrary numerical goals on border enforcement that must be met before legalization begins. Senator Chuck Schumer says the Gang of Eight’s immigration bill will make the country safer. Advocates around the country are raising red flags around the eventual elimination of the sibling category and the exclusion of same-sex, bi-national couples in the legislation.

In order to promote a robust conversation on these issues and more, the Immigration Policy Center at the American Immigration Council has launched an online space for you to engage with other advocates, academics, attorneys and impacted individuals who are discussing the policies laid out in the bill. Visit ThinkImmigration.org and join one (or more) of the conversations.

We want to know what you think should be included in immigration reform. How do we create a 21st century immigration system that best serves our nation’s interests? Visit ThinkImmigration.org.

We look forward to reading your thoughts!
Ben Johnson, Mary Giovagnoli & Wendy Feliz

Lessons from Orchard Street: Immigrants then and now are hard-working, risk-taking job creators

Since our country began, immigrants have started small businesses to support themselves. Some stayed small and some grew into the largest companies in the country and the world.    - - Donna Poisl

By Morris J. Vogel

John and Caroline Schneider operated a German lager beer saloon in the basement of New York's 97 Orchard St. in the 1870s. John dealt with patrons in the front, while Caroline prepared customer meals in a tiny back apartment, where the couple also slept, ate and lived.

Meanwhile, upstairs in the tenement, Natalie Gumpertz, a single mother, depended on a living room sewing machine to support her four children as a dressmaker. Other immigrant entrepreneurs, such as Harris Levine, followed her, running full-scale garment sweatshops in the building's cramped tenement homes.

Small business in America is not always glamorous and not always a path to fortune. But for generations, small business has been a path out of poverty for hard-working, risk-taking Americans and, along the way, one of the principal drivers of new job growth in America. And for generations, immigrants have played an outsize role as this country's entrepreneurs.
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San Jose: Immigrants get some tips on navigating U.S. citizenship process

Becoming a citizen has a LOT of paperwork to get through. This class is helping local immigrants understand and get through them.    - - Donna Poisl

By Steve Johnson

SAN JOSE -- Veronica Landeros was among hundreds of immigrants from around the world who descended on San Jose City College on Saturday to get a few pointers on how to manage their way through the sometimes arduous process of becoming a U.S. citizen.

Like many who showed up for the annual Citizenship Day event -- the 16th year it has been hosted by the Santa Clara County Citizenship Collaborative -- the 27-year-old Mexican immigrant, who lives in San Ramon and works as a Togo's cashier, was grateful for the advice.

"It was very helpful," she said of the classes held in 14 languages ranging from Arabic, Tagalog, Mandarin and Vietnamese to Russian, Somali, Tigrinya and Spanish. "They had a lot of information."
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Breaking down barriers: Illinois State University empowers teachers to engage English learners in the classroom

A new program is teaching teachers how to connect better with their ESL students; most can talk to friends on the playground but can't use proper English in class.    - - Donna Poisl

Written by: Kevin Bersett

It’s happening in classrooms all around the U.S.
Talented, passionate educators who do not possess the pedagogical training to work with English learners are struggling to engage these students through their curriculum. They are confused when English learners can speak English with ease on the playground and at the lunch table but cannot express themselves in the classroom.

This is a common situation for teachers, according to Associate Professor Pauline Clardy and Assistant Professor Elizabeth Skinner, both of the elementary bilingual/bicultural elementary education program. In their work with teachers and teacher candidates, they help demystify such phenomena and, more importantly, prepare educators to better serve English learners. “My goal is to help teachers to modify their lens,” Clardy said.

Sometimes English learners possess the language and interpersonal skills to carry on a conversation with friends but not the mastery of academic language required for abstract thinking and problem-solving in the classroom.
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Catholic bishops: Don’t let Boston attacks derail immigration reform

Some people in Washington are using the Boston attack as an excuse to not support immigration reform. Others are saying it is the perfect reason to support it.  - - Donna Poisl

By David Gibson, Religion News Service,

Leading U.S. Catholic bishops on Monday (April 22) denounced efforts to use the Boston Marathon bombings to derail the push for immigration reform, saying it is wrong to brand all immigrants as dangerous and that a revamped system would in fact make Americans safer.

“Opponents of immigration ... will seize on anything, and when you’ve got something as vivid and as recent as the tragedy in Boston it puts another arrow in their quiver,” New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, told reporters.

“To label a whole group of people — namely, the vast population of hard-working, reliable, virtuous immigrants — to label them, to demean them because of the vicious, tragic actions of two people is just ridiculous,” he said. “Illogical. Unfair. Unjust.”
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Five ways immigration reform will help low-wage workers

There are some very interesting facts and a graph that prove that immigration reform will not hurt our workers who are here already.   - - Donna Poisl

Posted by Ezra Klein

Something odd happens whenever immigration reform enters the news: Politicians and pundits who barely spare a word for low-wage workers in normal times suddenly become extremely concerned that immigrants might compete with low-wage laborers.

There’s a reason for that: The overall economic benefits of immigration are clearly positive. Immigration is good for the economy. So opponents of the bill are left picking over the distribution of those benefits.

As the Hamilton Project writes in their summary of the evidence, “immigrants create average wage increases of between 0.1 percent and 0.6 percent for American workers.
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Immigration bill takes steps to uniting country

The bill does what most Americans want it to do, let's hope the senators think so too.    - - Donna Poisl

by Linda Chavez

The immigration reform bill introduced last week by a bipartisan group of senators will please few die-hards on either side of the immigration debate, but it’s likely to please most Americans. Polls consistently show majority support for allowing the 11 million people who reside illegally in the U.S. to remain here, as long as they pay a penalty for violating immigration laws, have not committed serious crimes and, importantly, learn English. But many people remain skeptical that our borders are secure and want proof that we’re making progress toward that end before Congress makes other changes to immigration law.

The Senate bill does a credible job of addressing both. Illegal immigrants will be allowed to stay and earn a living and eventually a green card and citizenship, albeit with long waits. Those who have been given provisional legal status will not be eligible to become permanent residents until the backlog of others awaiting green cards has been cleared.
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The American Immigration Council Welcomes Bi-Partisan Senate Immigration Bill

PRESS RELEASE

April 17, 2013

Washington D.C. – The American Immigration Council applauds the “Gang of Eight” Senators who have introduced the "Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act."  The Senators and their staff have been working tirelessly, for months, to create a bi-partisan solution that attempts to fix our broken immigration system. The Senate is to be commended for having the courage to lean into this difficult issue and bring forth a detailed and comprehensive proposal. In addition, labor and business groups should be acknowledged for their role in negotiating, in advance, some of the toughest sticking points to help ensure a smooth path through Congress.

In the coming days and weeks as the bill is analyzed and debated, there will be many who criticize both the policy remedies in the bill, as well as the sheer length of the legislation. It is important to keep in mind, however, that developing a comprehensive solution requires striking a delicate balance between a diverse cross section of stakeholders and impacted constituencies. Furthermore, the dysfunctional system that we have developed over the past two decades is in dire need of deep and precise reforms. While there will be fair criticisms of some of the bill’s contents it is important to keep the spirit of the debate productive and to ensure room for compromise.

“The Senate has been working for months and the country has been waiting for years for this kind of broad and deep immigration reform legislation. Introduction of this bill will launch a critical debate on how best to reform our broken immigration system,” said Benjamin Johnson, Executive Director of the American Immigration Council. “These Senators are confronting the critical immigration challenges we face and are due a great deal of credit. There is much more work ahead but our hope is that all members of Congress will set aside old thinking and divisions and do what is right for American families, workers, and businesses.”

We look forward to the House of Representatives engaging constructively in the process and continuing to advance positive reforms, as well as ongoing support from the White House.
###

For more information, contact Wendy Feliz at wfeliz@immcouncil.org or 202-507-7524.

NHCLC Applauds Proposed Senate Immigration Reform Bill

PRESS RELEASE

We Are Inches Away from Crossing the 'Jordan' of Reform

WASHINGTON, April 18, 2013 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ -- The National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, the nation's largest Christian Hispanic organization, the Hispanic Evangelical Association, and NHCLC President, Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, applaud the proposed Senate bill on immigration reform.

Rodriguez will join Senator Marco Rubio and the bipartisan Senate "Gang of Eight" in a press conference in Washington, D.C on Thursday, April 18, 2013, as they outline their proposed immigration reform bill. The Senate introduced legislation, which serves to solve the immigration reform process, at 2 a.m. this morning (http://www.schumer.senate.gov/forms/immigration.pdf).

Rev. Rodriguez, praising this movement and momentum for reform, said, "Engaging a biblical narrative as a metaphor, the immigration cause no longer resides in the Egypt of political apathy or the desert of inevitable deportation. Today, this just cause stands before the 'Jordan' called reform. With prophetic courage, spiritual fortitude and political will, we will cross into the promise land of integration thus protecting our values, borders and dream.

"Ironically the same issue that once polarized our nation now serves as a conduit for bipartisan collaboration. Now is the time."

Today, on the same day that the Senate introduced immigration reform legislation, hundreds of evangelical congregants and leaders from over 24 states descended upon Washington, D.C. for the first-ever national "Evangelical Day of Prayer and Action on Immigration Reform." Dr. Carlos Moran, Board Member, National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference and NHCLC Immigration Spokesperson is one of several leaders speaking at this event in D.C, many of whom believe the Unites States is on the verge of a major and much anticipated breakthrough on immigration reform.

Dr. Carlos Moran, said, "As Evangelicals, as born again believers, as the spiritual heirs to the mantles of Billy Graham and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we affirm our conviction that it is the time to reconcile border security with security of our values; values that include faith, hope and charity. Values that prompt us to worship our Lord and welcome the stranger. For at the end of the day, passing immigration reform is not, as Rev. Samuel Rodriguez reminds us, about advancing the agenda of the donkey or the elephant. Immigration reform is about living out the agenda of the lamb."

Rev. Wilfredo "Choco" DeJesus, profiled along with Rev. Rodriguez's description of the Latino Reformation in the April 15th TIME magazine feature story, and Pastor of New Life Covenant Church, NHCLC Vice President and NHCLC Illinois Chapter Director, said, "Comprehensive Immigration Reform is long overdue. As long as a pathway to citizenship remains at the heart of this bill I remain hopeful that undocumented families will be offered the opportunity to stay together and not be torn apart by our current broken immigration system. These families are woven into the fabric of our daily lives – their children attend school with our children, they worship and are active in our churches, they are contributing members of our society. As a pastor and NHCLC Vice President of Social Justice, I will continue to advocate and stand for the millions of undocumented families that deserve a pathway to citizenship as the word of God instructs me to do."

ABOUT THE NHCLC  
The National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, the nation's largest Christian Hispanic organization, is the Hispanic Evangelical Association unifying, serving and representing millions in the Hispanic Born Again Community-including Puerto Rico-via 40,118 member churches by reconciling the vertical and horizontal of the Christian message through the 7 Directives Including Family, Life, Compassionate Evangelism, Stewardship, Justice, Education and Youth.

TO BOOK an INTERVIEW or SPEAKING ENGAGEMENT with REV. SAMUEL RODRIGUEZ
Matti Stevenson • 719.360.0586 • mattistevenson@nhclc.org

SOURCE  National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference

National Conference Call to Discuss Immigration Bill - Thursday, April 18th, 3:30 EST

from HIAS Today
   
A bipartisan group of eight Senators will soon be introducing legislation to reform our country's broken immigration system. As we anxiously await introduction of the bill, please mark your calendars to join experts from HIAS and the We Were Strangers, Too: Jewish Campaign for Immigration Reform for a national conference call:

Thursday, April 18th, 2013
3:30 - 4:30 pm EST
Call: 805-399-1000, Passcode: 403065

Click here to RSVP

Before Passover, the Jewish community  sent a strong message to President Obama and Congress, urging them to take steps to fix our country's broken immigration system. We outlined that "the current system does not reflect our history as a nation of immigrants, does not meet today's security and economic needs, and is not fair and humane." And last week, members of the Jewish community joined tens of thousands of community, labor, faith, and immigrant rights supporters on the National Mall to urge Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform.

The time is now. We clearly need an immigration system that is aligned with our Jewish and American values. Join us on Thursday to discuss what provisions are included in the Senate bill, how the policies would affect our communities, and next steps moving forward.

Visit www.wewerestrangerstoo.wordpress.com for more information, and please forward this message to anyone who might be interested.

Utah teacher boosts kids' English skills by getting them to read to younger siblings

Kids love reading to others and their younger brothers and sisters love being read to. A perfect match.   - - Donna Poisl

Article by: ERIN ADLER , Star Tribune

 Most weekends third-grader Dayana Estrada Martinez brings home a book to read aloud to her first-grade brother, Esau.

Whether the book is about dolphins or mummies, Esau “likes all of them,” Dayana said.

In addition to having fun, the two are building their English literacy skills as a part of the Read to Me Please program at Hidden Valley Elementary in Savage.

The program is the brainchild of English Language Learner (ELL) teacher Kimberly Olson, who started it last fall with a grant from Foundation 191, the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage district’s nonprofit foundation.
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Evangelicals see a shift in views on immigration

These people are coming around in their thinking, maybe listening to people who tell them this is what the Bible teaches.   - - Donna Poisl

By Julia Preston, New York Times

ORLANDO, Fla. — In the pews of the First Baptist Church of Orlando, where thousands of evangelical Christians gather on Sundays to worship and sing, a change of heart is happening on the once toxic issue of immigration.

Two years ago, national evangelical leaders began to speak out in favor of legislation to give legal status to immigrants in the United States illegally. Now, as Congress is about to start a debate on overhauling the immigration system, conservative Christians in those churches, once inclined to take a hard line on immigrants they viewed as lawbreakers, are consulting their Bibles and coming around to the pastors’ view.
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Immigration bill would spark surge of legal arrivals

More legal immigrants will come after immigration reform, it will not only affect those here illegally.   - - Donna Poisl

By Brian Bennett and Lisa Mascaro, Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — While much of the debate over immigration has focused on the fate of the estimated 11 million people in the U.S. without legal authorization, one of the biggest immediate impacts of the reform bill being prepared in the Senate would be a sudden, large surge in legal migration.

The U.S. admits about 1 million legal immigrants per year, more than any other country. That number could jump by more than 50% over the next decade under the terms of the immigration reform bill that a bipartisan group of senators expects to unveil as early as Tuesday. The impact would be felt nationwide, but areas that already have large immigrant communities would probably see much of the increase.
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THIS WEEK IN IMMIGRATION

Click the HEADLINE to read stories from this week from the Immigration Policy Center.