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By Chris Cillizza and Sean Sullivan, Washington Post

Conventional wisdom dictates that the Hispanic community in the United States is far more supportive of overhauling the immigration system and allowing those who are in the country illegally to be given a path to citizenship than the population as a whole.

That’s right — sort of. The reality of how Latinos feel about an immigration reform and, specifically, the requirements of a path to citizenship is more complex and worth exploring more deeply as we are just days away from the so-called “Gang of 8″ introducing a bipartisan immigration proposal.

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[Photo by Grand Canyon NPS]

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By Ted Hesson, ABCNews/Univision

Over six in ten Americans think undocumented immigrants should be given a path to citizenship, according to a survey released Thursday by the Brookings Institution and the Public Religion Research Institute.

The survey found that 63 percent of respondents back citizenship for those without papers, while 21 percent favor deportation. Only 14 percent, one in five, favor giving undocumented immigrants legal status but not citizenship, according to the survey.

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Read more related stories:

Key Senate chairman worries immigration overhaul pace too slow, Washington Post

Haley Barbour and Ed Rendell Cast Doubt on Immigration Law By Summer, ABCNews/Univision

[Photo by Thomas Hawk]

By Gene Demby, NPR

While most immigrants from Latin America identify with the Democratic Party, Hispanic members of the second generation — those born in the United States with at least one parent born outside of the country — were even more likely to identify as Democrats than their parents.

Click on picture to read story.

[Photo by Grand Canyon NPS]

By Jacquellena Carrero, NBCLatino

Compared to other groups of immigrants from Latin America and the Caribbean, Mexicans have the lowest rate of naturalization. Nearly 61 percent of immigrants eligible for naturalization from the region become U.S. citizens.

Click on picture top read story.

[Photo by Grand Canyon NPS]

By Peter Malof, Public News Service

EL PASO, Texas – Immigrant advocates in Texas are marking International Human Rights Day today by decrying what they call “systematic violations” of international law and the U.S. Constitution. At a 1 p.m. rally at the border fence in El Paso, protestors will demand sweeping reforms of the immigration system.

Fernando Garcia, who directs the Border Network for Human Rights, says a decade-long crackdown has led to routine racial profiling, illegal searches, forced separations, shootings of innocent people and hundreds of deaths each year of migrants attempting to cross remote deserts, mountains and rivers.

“All of this has been the result of this almost ideological border enforcement – enforcement, enforcement and more enforcement. It has been very personal for many of us, because that could be one of our family members – our granddads, brothers and sisters – dying.”

Proposals for comprehensive immigration reform have been scuttled in recent years by those who say the border should be sealed first. However, the latest census data confirms that over the last five years, net migration from Mexico has fallen by almost 1 million, to zero. After Latino voters turned out in greater-than-expected numbers in the last election, many lawmakers are now signaling they are ready to rethink their anti-reform stance.

Garcia says most Hispanics seeking opportunity or family reunification prefer to do so by legal means, but a broken system has made that almost impossible. Contrary to political rhetoric, he adds, the nation’s 11 million undocumented immigrants are not asking to jump to the front of the citizenship line.

“We understand that there’s going to be provisional residency, then permanent residency, and then, in a few years, citizenship. We know that it’s going to take a while. And we know that, yep, we’re going to be sent to the back of the line. But, right now, the line doesn’t work.”

Besides a pathway to citizenship, he says reforms should steer resources toward administrative problems – like the growing backlog of residency applications – instead of toward building more border walls and militarized enforcement efforts. Meanwhile, he says, groups like his will continue to seek remedies for what they see as human rights violations through local, national, and international channels.

More information about the rally and the documentation of border-region human-rights abuses is available at www.bnhr.org. Further analysis of census data is available from the Pew Hispanic Center.

This article was first published in Public News Service.

[Photo by Crisitna Parker/PNS]

By Kristian Ramos, Latinovations

President Barack Obama’s move to prioritize the deportation of criminal immigrants, while giving exemplary undocumented immigrants the ability to remain in the country through deferred action, is smart and fair enforcement policy.

In the face of increasingly clogged deportation courts, constrained budgets and pressure to fix our broken immigration system, the Department of Homeland Security and the President have come to a sensible middle ground with their Deferred Action policy. This bold policy move achieves the rarest of feats in modern politics: a compromise.

Yes, the President’s action does allow a finite number of the best and brightest undocumented immigrants to remain in the country. Yes, it gives these Americans, in every sense of the word but their citizenship status, the ability to continue to contribute to the country. Deferred action also creates a streamlined system of immigration enforcement which will help unclog our deportation courts and allows this administration to better target high priority criminal immigrants.

According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS),

Deferred action is a form of prosecutorial discretion created to ensure that enforcement resources are not expended on low priority cases, such as individuals who came to the United States as children and meet other key guidelines.

Deferred action does not in any way provide lawful permanent resident status or a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Moreover, it does not excuse undocumented immigrants on American soil of any previous or subsequent periods of unlawful presence.

According to UCSIS, to apply for deferred action immigrants must be younger than 31 as of the June 15th announcement, and must have entered the U.S. before the age of 16. Applicants must also have resided continuously in the country since June 15th, 2007, and must have been in country at the time of the June 15th announcement and when submitting their application. To be eligible, applicants must have entered the U.S. without inspection OR have lost their lawful immigration status before June 15th of this year.

In addition, candidates must be currently enrolled in or recently graduated from school. Alternately, applicants may provide a certificate of completion from high school or a general education development (GED) certificate. Honorably discharged veterans of the Coast Guard or Armed Forces of the United States are also eligible for deferred action. Immigrants who have been convicted of a felony, significant misdemeanor, three or more other misdemeanors, or pose a threat to national security or public safety are disqualified from the program.

Individuals may request consideration of deferred action for childhood arrivals for a period of two years, subject to renewal, beginning August 15th. Applicants may be eligible for employment authorization for the period of deferred action provided they can demonstrate “an economic necessity for employment.”

For those wondering how deferred action can possibly strengthen and streamline the enforcement capabilities of the Department of Homeland Security, consider this: our immigration court back logs are completely overwhelmed. Today’s immigration courts simply cannot focus their efforts on deporting actual criminal immigrants while also struggling to handle the deportation proceedings of low priority undocumented individuals.

According to Reuters, under the Obama Administration deportations have risen to a record 400,000 individuals each year. This increase has directly impacted our immigration courts. The University of Syracuse’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) states that more than 314,000 deportation cases awaited a resolution in the month of June, a 5.6 percent increase from 2011 and a 20 percent increase from 2010.

In light of the House GOP’s recent efforts to cut DHS enforcement by $484 million, a 1.2 percent cut for the 2013 budget year, the Obama Administration has had to work to streamline DHS enforcement capabilities. While actual immigration legislation remains stalled in the House, Deferred Action is a step forward in fixing our broke immigration system. At the very least it provides a way to allow the best and brightest undocumented immigrants to remain here while enhancing the enforcement capabilities of the federal government. In an era when partisanship is at an all-time high, Deferred Action is a compromise and that is not such a bad thing.

Thios article was firs published in Latinovations.

Kristian Ramos is Policy Director, 21st Century Border Initiative, at NDN and The New Politics Institute.

[Photo by The White House]

An interesting story came to us this week from Alabama, where Panamanian pastor Cristobal Echevarria recently earned his U.S. citizenship. His is a long story, starting with a violent life in Panama when the U.S. invaded when he says he dodged bullets, to coming to the U.S. in 2000, then having to work for years to bring all his children here, to finally becoming a citizen himself.

He was a military officer in Panama when he became a Christian and has worked with the Latino community in Alabama for several years, becoming a citizen himself earlier this year. The Anniston Star reported:

For the last nine years, from his small office inside Greenbrier Church of Christ in Anniston, the 60-year-old Echevarria has helped people like the young woman sitting on his couch — Hispanics who need help with immigration problems or marriage matters. He runs the Hispanic ministry at Greenbrier, preaching the gospel twice on Sundays and again on Wednesday nights.

He spends hours each week translating at the Calhoun County courthouse and at area hospitals. He regularly travels to the immigration office in Atlanta…

What worries Echevarria now is the uncertainty that the Hispanic community feels about Alabama’s new immigration law. He said he noticed families packing up and moving from the area soon after the bill was signed.

Basically, it’s an awesome story, definitely worth checking out. In our weekly segment, “Bien Hecho,” we note the good deeds and achievements of Latinos across the U.S. and Latin America. If you feel that someone you know is deserving of recognition, let us know at tips@newstaco.com.

[Photo By Bluszczokrzew]

The Illinois DREAM Act, which will help undocumented students in the state pay for college, was signed into law by Governor Pat Quinn on Monday.

The law will create a “DREAM Fund” supported by private donors—not taxpayers, that will hold funds for grants and scholarships for students.   Quinn has pledged $1000 of his own money to the fund.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel was present for the signing and expressed his support for the legislation.

“Immigrants are a driving force in our city’s cultural and economic life, and opening the way for all Chicago students to earn an excellent higher education will make our city even stronger,” Emanuel said. “I am proud that families and students across Illinois will now have a better shot at the American Dream — which starts with a great education.”

The law takes its name from the federal legislation that has failed to pass in Congress since it was first introduced a decade ago.  Unlike the federal version, this law does not create a path to citizenship for undocumented students.

Under the law, counselors will be encouraged to undergo training that will better equip them to help undocumented students pursue a college education such.

Arianna Salgado is one of these students.  She was told she couldn’t go to college because she didn’t qualify for federal financial aid by a counselor.

“Now I know that our high school and college counselors acknowledge us and know that we exist and will be able to inform us more,” Salgado stated at the ceremony to a standing ovation.  “We deserve the same opportunities to continue with our higher education because we have the same dedication and commitment as our peers.”

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), an ardent supporter of the DREAM Act and whose most recent protest over the broken immigration system got him arrested outside of the White House just last week, was unable to attend the signing due to the debt ceiling issue in Washington but issued a statement.

“Illinois has been and continues to be visionary in its approach to including immigrants into the fabric of our communities. The Illinois DREAM Act begins to deal with the reality that we have about a million young people nationally who came here at a young age, were raised in the U.S., and do not have legal immigration status, yet they have aspirations for higher education, service, and contributing to the success of this country, the only country they have ever known” said Rep. Guitierrez in a statement.

California also recently passed its version of the DREAM Act.

References

• Huffingtonpost.com

[Photo By pamhule]

Blanca Gonzalez Torres was an advocate for the Latino community in Washington state who died unexpectedly from a brain aneurysm last August. Last week she was honored by the state senate there for her good works. Gonzalez Torres did a great many things in her short 39 years, among them:

• Founded one of the first bilingual Latino newspapers, Tu Decides, in the tri-cities area.
• Helped found EXPO NorthWest, an event to bring Latino and non-Latino businesses together.
• She was helping to promote citizenship classes.

A story from the Tri-City Herald has more:

“It is important that we, as a state, take a moment to recognize her extraordinary life, generous contributions to our people and impact on the growing influence, entrepreneurial spirit and political clout of our Hispanic communities,” [Sen. Jerome Delvin, R-Richland] said.

Albert Torres said to have his wife honored by the Senate seems surreal. He and their sons Isaiah, 14, and Ezequiel, 12, his wife’s parents and other family members will be in Olympia today for the Senate honor.

Torres said that when his wife found something didn’t exist, she thought should she started it, as in co-founding the bilingual newspaper T Decides and EXPOnw, which organized the Tri-Cities’ first Latino Business, Consumer & Career Expo.

She also was part of an effort to offer citizenship classes to about 600 Tri-Cities residents in 2004, Torres said….Gonzalez Torres’ parents were two of the many who became citizens after taking the course.

Our weekly segment, “Bien Hecho,” highlights the good deeds and achievements of Latinos across the U.S. If you feel that someone you know is deserving of recognition, let us know at tips@newstaco.com

Follow Sara Inés Calderón on Twitter @SaraChicaD

[Image Courtesy Washington Senate Republican Caucus; Video By KNDO]

Russell Pearce, left, and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

A group of conservative Arizona Latinos, Somos Republicans, is behind a move to recall that state’s senate president Russell Pearce. For those not in the know, this is the kind of guy who’s been maneuvering the types of bills that will deny the children of immigrants citizenship — *cough* unconstitutional — and lots of other similarly draconian legislation.

The group has started a Facebook Page, Russell Pearce Recall Election, where they state:

Through our broad coalition of Arizona community members all across the political map, we hope to bring light to Senator Pearce’s unapologetic anti-liberty, anti-family, anti-child, anti-immigrant, and anti-privacy activist leadership. We want to send a message to Pearce and his followers that accountability and integrity are a requirement and not optional when it comes to being a legislator and making decisions that effect all of us.

Dee Dee Blase, founder of Somos Republicans, filed the recall petition primarily because of what she calls’ Pearce’s distain for the Constitution, i.e., his anti-immigrant politics. The petition for recall must gather 7,756 signatures from Pearce’s district by May 27 in order to go forward, and Blase has already pulled in Democrats to the effort.

I think the takeaway from this recall is that Latinos, conservative or liberal or moderate, can work together to protect our interests politically speaking. As I wrote earlier this week, politicos think they can totally ignore Latino voters (wherever they may be) and take their support for granted. Tsk, tsk, tsk is what this Pearce recall is showing; even in the midst of what is arguably one of the most hostile environment for Latinos in the country, Somos Republicans and other activists are finding a way to use their civil rights to fight for what they think is important.

Check out the Russell Pearce Recall Election Facebook Page and let us know what you think.

[Photo By Phoenician Patriot]

Seriously? According to a recent report, 14 states have legislators who are set to file bills about birthright citizenship this year. That is, they are going to propose laws that would end the 14th Amendment’s allowance for people being born in the U.S. to be citizens. These are the states with these brilliant legislators: Alabama, Arizona, Delaware, Idaho, Indiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas and Utah.

There’s so much stupidity in the very idea of this proposition that I find it hard to begin. The first question that comes to mind, however, is, if the 14th Amendment no longer decides who is a U.S. citizen, who gets to decide — legislators in Arizona? I believe that would be the correct answer. You know, for all this talk about “big government” and 1984-like policies, I find that conservative politicians are the ones who are all-too-willing to use the government to intrude on intimate aspects of our lives.

I certainly don’t trust some lawmaker from Texas or Montana (less than a million population!) or Arizona to interpret for me what the best way for this country’s birthright citizenship laws is. I’m tempted to say that most of this is just pandering to the extreme right, however, I have this sinking feeling that some of it is actually real. It would be a travesty for our country’s traditions and laws to be compromised for a short-term political rally.

[Photo By U.S. Government]

Oh geez, one of the cornerstones of the American way of life — birthright citizenship, that crazy thing the government did way back in 1868 via the 14th Amendment after that whole, you know, slavery thing — is on the chopping block. Or, at least, that’s what Republican Rep. Steve King of Iowa wants.

As King is the incoming chairman of the subcommittee that oversees immigration, he is set to push for denying birthright citizenship to the children of “illegals.” And I’m not even going to get into all the problems places like France and Germany have by denying birthright citizenship to the children of immigrants.

The most important thing for us to remember in this “debate” is that it’s not really a debate. Lawmakers that want to redefine citizenship are after power, and they don’t want to share it with the rest of us. Rather, people like King are trying to define what the U.S. will look like in the future, unfortunately, it’s too late for that. So, they insult our intelligence by coming up with lame excuses for logic like this:

“While opponents say King’s bill would clearly be unconstitutional, backers say the 14th Amendment would not apply. The amendment states that anyone born in the United States and ‘subject to the jurisdiction thereof’ is a citizen. King said the amendment would not apply to the children of illegal immigrants because their parents should not be in the country anyway.”

I’m not a genius or anything, but that’s like saying that because people aren’t supposed to drive drunk you can’t arrest them for doing it. Hardly logical, ey? I wish they would stop insulting our collective intelligence with these “arguments” and just come out and say it: We don’t want anymore brown babies in this country. King and his cronies are just mad that about 8% of the babies born in 2008 were the children of immigrants without papers (according to the Pew Hispanic Center, anyway).

Well, I’ve got some sad news for King and others like him, come Census time, there’s not going to be a darn thing you can do about all the brown babies that are already here — so you’d better find more effective ways to disenfranchise people.

[Image Courtesy Brittany ((Halo))]