The Los Angeles Times today has a profile on Maria Elena Durazo and her late husband, Miguel Contreras, an L.A. power couple that used their skills in politics and organizing to give voice to the city’s Latinos and immigrants. As the article mentions, the couple came from humble roots to lead a...
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It might be a symbolic gesture at this point, but in the immigration debate symbolism matters. California’s notoriously anti-immigrant Proposition 187—the ballot initiative that spawned a movement and inspired untold numbers of leaders to enter organizing and politics—has been removed from California state law. It was already unenforceable thanks...
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Raul Garcia, First Farm Worker to Run for U.S. Congress, Asks McCarthy Key Question: While We Wait for You on Immigration Reform, Who Should Be Harvesting America’s Food? Raul Garcia, a naturalized U.S. citizen and farm worker of 30 years, has had enough of the empty promises from his...
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We have long warned Republicans that their opposition to immigration reform will cost them dearly in the long run. But some advocates are also looking to make the topic an issue in the short run — for example, Raul Garcia, a farmworker in central California who has emerged as the...
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Research Finds Anti-immigrant Ads Don’t Mobilize White voters, But Do Mobilize Latino Voters While it is no longer breaking news that Republicans have rejected their own post-2012 consensus to rebrand their image to Latino voters and reposition themselves on immigration policy, the rationale behind the GOP’s decision to ignore...
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Will Kevin McCarthy Follow the Path of Pete Wilson or Ronald Reagan? Washington, DC – As a series of new reports capture, House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) likely ascension to House Majority Leader will have important implications for immigration policy and moreover, the political future of the Republican Party. And coming from California,...
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This is a pretty juicy, never-revealed before anecdote from Dara Lind at Vox today. Apparently ICE, facing insubordination from localities over Secure Communities and police holds on immigrants, lobbied California’s Gov. Jerry Brown to veto the TRUST Act in 2012. They tried to talk him into a 90-day “pilot program”...
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While Republicans in Colorado are deathly afraid of Tom Tancredo winning their party’s gubernatorial nomination, Republicans in California are voicing their opposition to a similar candidate — Tim Donnelly, a former member of the Minuteman Project. Donnelly, a Republican who once compared the defense of the US-Mexico border to “a war,”...
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Republicans in the House of Representatives seem to be planning to ignore immigration reform this Congress, to the detriment of the country, California, and their own political interests. Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) and his fellow Republicans have offered weak excuses for their inaction, despite the fact...
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While He Tells Hometown Media He is Trying to “Move” Immigration Bill, Wall Street Journal Reports He’s Working Behind the Scenes Against It Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that House Majority Whip Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was the key voice among House leadership urging inaction on immigration reform in 2014. ...
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