For years now, immigrants have been blamed for things like homegrown terrorism via "terror babies," global warming, the health care crisis, the demise of Wall Street, and spreading leprosy and bird flu (among other diseases). Arizona Senator John McCain (R), one-time immigrant champion, is adding another to our... Continue »
The Smith-Grassley push to make the ineffective and burdensome E-Verify program mandatory nationwide continues to generate significant opposition from a broad range of observers, from the editorial board of La Opinion, the largest Spanish-language daily in the U.S., to the Service Employees International Union, to respected columnist Andres Oppenheimer.... Continue »
Yesterday, Congressman Lou Barletta (PA-11) released a statement expressing his strong opposition to Lamar Smith's E-Verify legislation, which would require all employers in the U.S. to use the flawed government program known as E-Verify to evaluate whether an employee is legal to work. Continue »
Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) haven't met before. But Gutierrez, one of the House's most passionate pro-immigration advocates, is getting personal with the freshman tea-party senator, labeling him an "extremist" and saying his Cuban-born parents benefitted from the same type of "generous" immigration policies that... Continue »
Yesterday, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) and Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) each introduced their own versions of mandatory E-Verify legislation. Freshman senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) is an original cosponsor of the Grassley bill. Marco Rubio might have stayed out of the immigration debate in Florida but he definitely... Continue »
Republican leaders have repeatedly stressed the need for their 2012 nominee to win the growing Hispanic vote, but most of the party's president contenders have no outreach focusing specifically on Hispanics. Continue »
House Republicans who trek to Silicon Valley in search of campaign cash keep hearing the same request: We need more visas to hire more highly skilled foreign workers. But that's a deal Republicans have so far been reluctant to make. Continue »
As the Republican race for the party's presidential nomination begins and the 2012 cycle kicks off in earnest, the GOP's stance on immigration and its related (in)ability to compete for Latino voters will be major storylines. Continue »
Arguing that he is only looking to keep communities safer and combat undocumented immigration, the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Lamar Smith (R-Texas) is pushing through two problematic bills with serious ramifications for due process of the law and for workers, including citizens and permanent residents. Continue »
Representative Lamar Smith and Elton Gallegly wrote an op-ed in the LA Times about their E-Verify bill. They forgot to mention their plan would cause the loss of almost 800,000 jobs, force 4 million more workers into an administrative quagmire, cause an undue burden on small businesses, nearly wipe... Continue »