Should Immigration Activists Go All In, Or Bet On A Smaller Prize?
The immigration reform movement is at a fork in the road: fight for the DREAM Act as a standalone bill or continue the battle for comprehensive legislation.
The immigration reform movement is at a fork in the road: fight for the DREAM Act as a standalone bill or continue the battle for comprehensive legislation.
June 1st was marked by more acts of civil disobedience in New York City, as the pressure for legislators to move on immigration ramps up.
Advocates across the nation have begun a 10 day countdown for immigration reform that will culminate on May 1st, while analysts argue over the fate of an ephemeral bill.
Hours before Sens. Schumer and Graham presented their blueprint for immigration reform, Texas Sen. Jon Cornyn said he is committed to finding “common ground” on the issue.
President Obama once again seemed to mollify immigration reform advocates with a statement on his “strong commitment” to the issue, but he did not give them much else.
Harsh criticism of Obama for increasing enforcement and deportations. Schumer-Graham bill would include mandatory ID card.
The president will talk immigration with Sens. Schumer and Graham Monday evening, but a potentially massive march for immigration reform looms ahead.
“Latinos are 15 percent of the U.S. population. But you would never know that from looking at the federal judiciary, where only seven percent of judges are Hispanic. That gross underrepresentation must come to an end—at the highest levels.”
The quote comes from an editorial published last week by El Diario/La Prensa, New York’s leading Spanish-language newspaper, in support of the potential nomination of a Hispanic appointee to the U.S. Supreme Court in the likely event that a vacancy occurs during President Barack Obama’s term of office.
The senators recommended Bronx-born judge Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court. (Photo: Pace University)
The editorial came after U.S. Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, both Democrats from New York, sent Obama a letter asking him to nominate a Hispanic when there is a high court vacancy. The senators reminded Obama in their letter that no Hispanic has ever been named to the Supreme Court, according to El Diario, which obtained a copy of the letter. Schumer and Gillibrand also recommended two candidates for an eventual vacancy: Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and New York Judge Sonia Sotomayor, a Bronx native who has sat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit since 1998. (more…)